Daily Rohlíky

Then the Lord said to Moses, “I am going to rain bread from heaven for you, and each day the people shall go out and gather enough for that day.” – Exodus 16:4a (NRSV) 

The first morning I stayed with my wife’s family in the Czech Republic, I was trying to help set the table for breakfast and I couldn’t find the bread in the kitchen. 

When I asked about it, my mother-in-law looked at me, genuinely puzzled, and explained: “There isn’t any yet.” 

Ten minutes later, she came through the front door carrying a bag from the tiny neighborhood store: four fresh rohlíky and a few slices of rye. Certainly not a weekly stockpile. Just enough for the day’s breakfast, with no apparent anxiety about whether there would be bread tomorrow. 

I found the restraint a bit jarring. At home, my instinct is to buy the bulk bag of bagels and the backup loaf “just in case.” But before too long, I’m usually tossing out moldy slices, a frustrating testament to my own fear that there wouldn’t be enough. 

The Israelites knew a similar fear. Having just escaped enslavement in Egypt, their hands were still raw from building Pharaoh’s storehouses. They had been trained to believe that security required relentless accumulation, and that if you didn’t hoard today, you wouldn’t survive tomorrow. So when God gave them manna, the miracle came with a catch: if you try to take more than you need for the day, it rots. 

When Jesus teaches us to pray for “our daily bread,” he echoes this wilderness economy. It’s all about helping our hearts to trust God’s goodness over our culture’s greed. 

American culture celebrates hoarding and overconsumption, but God invites us to choose another way. Daily bread is not something we are meant to amass, control, or leverage against our neighbors. It teaches us to trust God’s provision for today and to take only what we need, so there can be enough for everyone else too. 

Prayer
God of daily bread, meet us in our hunger and in our fear. Teach us the grace of enough: enough to receive, enough to share, enough to trust you again tomorrow. Amen.

About the Author
Hannah Sachs is the Minister of Faith Formation at Rock Spring UCC in Arlington, Virginia.