Give us this day our daily bread

By Peter Milsom, May 18, 2020

The coronavirus pandemic is having a massive financial impact on the world. Governments are borrowing very large sums of money in order to help their people and keep their economies going. Businesses, both large and small, are suffering and some may never reopen. Many people are likely to lose their jobs, with far-reaching consequences for them and their families. Britain’s billionaires have lost £54 billion in the past two months. At the other end of the social scale more people than ever are now dependent on food banks to feed their families. At the end of December 2019, the total personal debt in Britain was £225 billion, the equivalent of £4300 for every adult. Now, because of the virus, personal debt has significantly increased.

The impact, however, is even greater in the Developing World. The World Bank estimates that 1.4 billion people worldwide normally live on under a $1.25 a day and another 2.5 billion people live on less than $2 a day. In Sub-Saharan Africa nearly 75% of the population fall into this category. We have a doctor friend who works in a rural Christian hospital in Uganda where the government has imposed a very strict lockdown to stop the virus spreading. This has had a devastating impact on the poorest people who are struggling to buy food and, also, on seriously sick people and expectant mothers who can’t get to the hospital.

The Lord’s Prayer, which Jesus taught his disciples, is very realistic and relevant to us all. The prayer begins with the words “Our Father in heaven.” As good human fathers care for their children and provide for them, so God is the One who provides for us. One of the petitions, which in normal times we hardly notice, is especially meaningful in hard times and for those facing crushing poverty – “Give us this day our daily bread.”

A few years ago, the 4-year-old daughter of a good friend of ours was taken into foster care. Her foster parents noticed that, before each meal, the little girl’s lips were moving as she spoke silently. They asked her what she was saying. She said she was praying to God, thanking him for her food and for the kind people who were looking after her. Praying, too, for her Mummy and her brothers and sisters. The foster parents were deeply moved and asked the little girl to pray out loud for them all at every meal. Through that little girl they became conscious of God, their heavenly Father, in a new way. They said, “she has changed our lives.”