Breathing in Jesus

Windy days are fun. You can stick your hand out the car window and feel the wind push at it, or feel your hair blow back as you ride your bike.

But if you're not feeling the wind, you never think about the air you breathe even though it's all around you!

Jesus probably liked windy days. Just like wind reminds you to think about air, He used different ways to remind people to think about God, who's all around us. In this week's Gospel (John 6:51-58), Jesus even says God is like bread!

"I am the living bread that came down from heaven," Jesus said. "The bread that I give you is myself, and if you eat it, you'll live forever." The people got angry. "How can He give us Himself to eat?" they asked. Jesus answered: "If you don't eat my body and drink my blood, you will have no life in you."

The wind isn't just around you; it's inside you. You need to breathe air to live. When Jesus talked about being the "bread from heaven," He meant that He was like that air.

Just like kids only think about wind when they feel it, people saw Jesus and thought God was standing in front of them. They forgot that God could be inside them, too! Jesus used the idea of bread to show that people needed to take God into their hearts by following Him.

On a windy day, the wind can push you around or blow away something you're holding. Jesus said He was like that, too: He pushed people to remember Him by going to church, receiving Communion and helping others, so He could live in their hearts. Not having God in you would be like not being alive!

If you stopped breathing air, you'd die. Jesus said that by "eating the bread of life," by following Him, we would go to heaven someday and live forever with God. It's a good thing that, like the air we breathe, there's enough of God for everyone!

PRAYER FOR THE WEEK: Jesus, help me remember that you're all around me -- and inside me, too! Amen.

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