Her fans knew her as Nightbirde. Singer-songwriter Jane Kristen Marczewski won a following in 2021 on a popular TV talent show. In 2017, she’d been diagnosed with Stage 3 breast cancer. In 2018, she went into remission. She started touring, but months later the cancer returned, giving her little chance of survival. Amazingly she recovered and was declared cancer-free. But on February 19, 2022, Nightbirde died.
During her difficult journey, she blogged, “I remind myself that I’m praying to the God who let the Israelites stay lost for decades. They begged to arrive . . . but instead He let them wander, answering prayers they didn’t pray. . . . Every morning, He sent them mercy-bread from heaven . . . . I look for the mercy-bread . . . The Israelites called it manna, which means ‘what is it?’ That’s the same question I’m asking . . . . There’s mercy here somewhere—but what is it?”
The exodus story reveals much about God’s mercy. First, His mercy was promised to the Israelites. “You will be filled with bread” (Exodus 16:12). And second, His mercy may surprise us. “They did not know what it was” (v. 15). Mercy often doesn’t look like what we think. But it’s mercy nonetheless. For the Israelites, it looked like morning manna. For Nightbirde, she wrote of the gift of a blanket from a friend, and her mother’s hands.
How has God’s mercy surprised you? What might it mean for you to look for mercy today?
Merciful God, thank You for Your mercy. Please help me search for it.
For further study, read A Child’s Compassion.
The desert sojourn (Exodus 16:11-16) and God’s merciful provision of manna became an example or pattern of God’s intention as a royal shepherd to provide for His people (celebrated annually in the Feast of Tabernacles). The Good Shepherd in the Gospels continues to offer divine provision to believers in Jesus in their deserts (Mark 6:32-44), but only at the end of this present age will He wipe away every form of suffering and want for His faithful followers. Revelation 7 describes this future time: “He who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence. ‘Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst. The sun will not beat down on them,’ nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; ‘he will lead them to springs of living water.’ ‘And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes’ ” (vv. 15-17).
Check out how God provides spiritual food in the desert too.
