Pecans From Heaven

"The sons of Israel said to them,'Would that we had died by the Lord's hand in the land of Egypt, when we sat by pots of meat, when we ate bread to the full; for you have brought us out to this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.'  Then the Lord said to Moses, 'Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a day's portion every day, that I may test them, whether or not they will walk in My instruction.'"  Exodus 16: 3-4 NAS

Have you ever found yourself wondering about some of the things the Bible is silent about like personal reactions to the things that happened?  I found myself in that position yesterday morning as I picked up the pecans that had fallen from our tree during a horrible windstorm Sunday night.  Let me explain,

When my husband and I moved into this house, we inherited a very large, very old pecan tree that stands beside the carport.  We didn't nurture it or raise it.  It was just there as a blessing from God.  And every year we have harvested the pecans from that tree both in good years and bad years.  So you could say that the pecans are our manna from God.

Well, all the people around here that had pecan trees were convinced that this was going to be a bad year.  There was a drought this summer and many windstorms that caused the green pecans to fall from the tree.  Then two early snows in November and we all "knew" by Thanksgiving that this was going to be a bad year for pecans.

Then a funny thing happened.  We had a milder than normal winter with plenty of rain allowing what was still on the tree to ripen and fall.  God has really helped out in the falling department.  There have been several windstorms throughout the winter due to the warmer than normal temperatures.  So God made possible the perfect conditions for the pecans that were left (and there were LOTS of them) to ripen and fall to the ground.  Like the manna fell to the ground every morning for the Israelites.

Yesterday morning I went out to pick up pecans.  The wind had been so bad that I had to get all the pecans off the porch before I could pick them up on the driveway and in the yard!  After about an hour and a half of bending over to pick up pecans and discovering I was not even CLOSE to being done, I began to grumble.  That's right.  I started to complain to God about picking up all these pecans.  Many times I thought about stopping and letting my extremely healthy fox squirrel and his buddies have themselves a party and just go back into the house.  But I knew there were people who were counting on me so I picked, complained, picked, complained. 

Then I started to wonder if the children of Israel ever complained about having to bend over and pick up the manna.  Did they do like I did and complain about their legs hurting or their back hurting.  Did they ever complain about their head hurting or their feet being tired as they harvested what God had so graciously given them?  The manna cost them nothing, just like my pecans, yet did they complain about the work it took to harvest it?

It's an humbling thought.  How often do I complain about having to work for something that has cost me nothing.  How many times do I complain about doing what is required of me for God's blessings?  Were the Israelites as ungrateful as I was being?

We all want God's blessings...our manna from heaven.  But can we pass the test and follow His instructions? 

After God planted those thoughts in my mind, I quit complaining.  I kept hearing in my head the phrase I was taught as a kid, "Waste not, want not."  Then it dawned on me that I would ask the people I give these pecans to, to give me a one gallon-sized plastic bag of the nuts for all the work I did picking them up all winter so they could have them.  After all, it took me 3 hours and filled two paper grocery sack full of nuts.

So lookout family (that's who I have been providing nuts to all winter), this time I am going to ask nicely to be "reimbursed" for my labor.

Doesn't the Bible say somewhere that a laborer is worthy of his hire??  I wonder if that is with complaining or without?