Daily Bread on a Distant Shore

In the Gospel of John, Jesus speaks seven times using the sacred name “I AM,” echoing God’s self-revelation to Moses in the Old Testament and drawing our attention not just to what He does, but to who He is. This series is a consideration of those declarations—pairing Scripture with lived moments that expose our need for grace. Today, we begin with bread.

Several years ago, my husband John was invited at the last minute to speak at a college conference on Catalina Island, off the coast of California. I packed in a flurry to accompany him on the Friday ferry with our four-month-old baby, Hank.

On the boat, I learned something unsettling: no ferries would return until Sunday, and the island town was inaccessible without one. That would have been manageable—except I just had to wean my baby from breastfeeding and realized, in that moment, that I had packed the sample can of formula instead of the full container.

Panic set in. There we were, surrounded by hundreds of students and miles of ocean, holding a baby whose food supply suddenly felt uncertain, with no easy way off the island.

That night, as John prayed for our daily bread, I was reminded—uncomfortably—that God designed us to depend on Him.

The next day, I listened as John preached about Jesus feeding five thousand, baskets left over, abundance spilling out of scarcity. Meanwhile, I quietly wrestled with my own fear. The words “O you of little faith” echoed in my heart. I realized how easily I forget God’s faithfulness, how quickly I cling to what I can see rather than the One who sees me. While I fixated on the potential absence of a physical necessity, I was never lacking the presence of God—or His supply for what my soul truly needed.

Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.” -John 6:35

When Jesus says “I AM,” He is not offering a metaphor alone—He is revealing Himself as the very source of life God’s people have been taught to depend on.

Just before his declaration as the bread of life, Jesus feeds the five thousand. He provides a meal for a multitude. The crowds follow Him because their stomachs are full, but Jesus presses them to see beyond temporary provision to eternal nourishment.

Physical food fades. Spiritual food sustains forever.

And yet, moments of physical desperation—whether hunger, fear, or even a dwindling can of baby formula—often expose where we are tempted to trust tangible provision more than the Provider Himself. Jesus does not simply rescue us from emptiness; He invites us to be filled by Him.

Where does emptiness make itself known in your life? Perhaps it shows up in the ache of hunger or the anxious question, Will there be enough? Maybe it lingers quietly, in a loneliness you cannot name, or a space left behind by something or someone lost. Scripture doesn’t ask us to hide from these places. It calls us to bring them to Jesus—to acknowledge our need and lift our eyes to Him.

So how do we partake in this indispensable Bread of Life? Jesus tells us plainly in John 6:35: we come and we believe. We come deliberately, returning on purpose to moments of worship, prayer, and Scripture, even when life is busy or messy. We come dependently, remembering, as Tim Keller teaches, that Jesus does not merely give the Bread of Life; He is the Bread of Life, and we are nourished through Him by faith. And we come daily, again and again, as our souls hunger for sustenance, letting the rhythm of returning to Him shape our lives.

Sunday arrived. I fed the final bottle to my baby on the return ferry—one scoop of formula leftover in the can, and an urgent Target run completed before our flight home.

That fear—that the milk might run out—will always remind me that Jesus does not. For hearts shaped by scarcity and self-reliance, the boundless sufficiency of Christ can be difficult to grasp. Yet just as He provided manna for the Israelites in the wilderness, He gives us our daily bread—enough for today—so that we might learn to trust Him tomorrow.

We are invited to be sustained by our Dependable Savior who says, “I AM the bread of life.” May we come to Him on purpose, with need, every day.

*I have started designing Bible verses for my girls and me to print out and put on our mirrors. I made this one for us as I was sitting in this passage over the last couple weeks and wanted to share in case anyone else wants to print it out, too.

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