I Am Fed

(Continued from No Longer Bound)

I went through another night without any incident. Again I saw the glowing blades of others who had come to the rim, glowing like the stars in the heavens above. I watched the far side of the abyss as well hoping to see into the battle on the other side, but did not. I slept some too and by morning felt hungry. I hadn’t eaten since my arrival on the edge. Though joy filled and sustained me, even took my mind away from eating, I nevertheless felt the need for sustenance. I knew I would have to find food soon.

As the morning sun broke across the way, it found me sitting on a rock with my sword tip down. I faced the rising sun in half-sleep. “Father, I am hungry,” I said softly.

Drifting on the wind, I was sure I could hear the soft song of praise in the voice of the woman whose bonds I had cut the day before. The pleasant sound was quite faint as she was somewhere to the south of me. Her melody drifted on the morning breeze which came from that direction.

“Hallelujah...Hallelujah....Hallelujah....” Her words expressed jubilance through as many musical notes as there were syllables in the word. I listened carefully. No, she sang more notes than four. She gave variation to each syllable. She was praising God with all her spirit and her song was beautiful to behold. It became part of the thoughts in my mind. It took the hunger away from me.

I stood and began to dance with the sword over my head, moving to the rhythm she established in the air.

“Hal...le...lu...jaaaah....Hal...le...lu...jaaaah,” over and over again. I swung the sword slowly and worshiped in this manner. “O God Creator Most High, you are real to me. You are real and the one whom I worship over all things. You are my sustenance. You are my food. When I am hungry I call out to you and praise your name. I praise your name even now, Lord God, for I know you will feed me. I seek you with all my heart. I look across the chasm and it’s not the place I seek. It’s you, O Lord. The place I desire because You are there, but I know also that you are coming and for that I give thanks in my spirit. I praise You and I worship You. Yes, I worship You. I give this day to You, Lord. You know better than I what I need to sustain myself. So I turn to you this morning and tell you that I am hungry. Sustain me, O Great God Almighty Who Has Made The Heavens And The Earth”

I kept my tongue from complaint. I closed my eyes and continued swinging the sword to the rhythm of her soft, ever so pleasant words of praise in the distance. I had worked myself away from the edge of the abyss onto the open plain at some small distance. The sword swam in the air above me and around me. I swung it slowly to her song until I could no longer hear it at which I laid the point of the sword down in the dust and opened my eyes. There at the very tip of my Joy was a loaf of bread and cup of water.

The bread was fresh and warm; the water, cold and very refreshing. I ate the entire loaf and drank all the water slowly, savoring each bite of the bread and sipping each taste of the clean, refreshing water. I thanked God and praised Him. I praised Him for the fact that He knew my hunger and fed me. I praised Him for the fact that I had come this far; and I praised him for His Mighty Love which I knew to be more powerful than any army of man.

###