Once upon a time a young man asked his mother for one hundred bucks. When she refused he said, “You never do anything for me.” She exploded and proceeded to name how, from the first moment of his existence she had fed and clothed and educated and comforted him. He muttered under his breath, “Yeah, but what have you done for me lately.” The Hebrew children seemed to have been like that. “The whole Israelite community grumbled against Moses and Aaron.” Even after God had liberated them from slavery, delivered them from Pharaoh, led then through the Red Sea they still complained against God. Jesus observed that the people of his times like that. “You are looking for me not because you saw signs but because you ate the loaves and were filled.” They weren’t content with the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and the fish but wanted something more. We are like that. Despite the fact that we have been blessed by God in ways beyond counting we still feel aggrieved and put upon. What’s it going to be? Grumbling or gratitude?
