The crumb tray. On a toaster. That’s a real thing.
I was having breakfast with my daughter Kaley and caught a whiff of burnt toast. When we checked, though, the toast was fine. The rest of the conversation went like this.
Me: I’ll bet you just need to empty the crumb tray.
Kaley: The….what?
Me: The crumb-catcher thing. You know. That pull-out tray that catches the breadcrumbs.
It took me a couple of minutes to convince her that I wasn’t making it up. And you can guess how I convinced her, right? Yes, I went over to her toaster and pulled out the crumb tray. Full? Um yes. She was incredulous. And how had she and her entire household never caught fire?
I sent a video message to her sister so we could semi-good-naturedly rib her together (sorry, but it’s what Rheas do).
My video to Allie: Can you believe your sister never knew her toaster had a crumb tray?
Allie’s video back, looking at least as incredulous as Kaley: The…what?
My video: Noooo! You were supposed to lovingly mock her with me.
Allie’s next video, holding an overflowing crumb tray: I had to check to make sure you weren’t pranking me.
Me, in a later video message to both daughters: I am a failure as a mother.
It’s interesting to note that what was most compelling to both daughters was that there was this secret place. A secret compartment, right under their respective noses. I don’t think they could’ve seemed more surprised if I’d told them there’s a secret door that leads to a secret passage that leads to a secret treasure.
It’s more interesting to note the compelling nature of an altogether different secret place. The writer of Psalm 91 knew about it. “The one who lives under the protection of the Most High dwells in the shadow of the Almighty,” (Psalm 91:1 CSB). Young’s Literal translates it this way: “He who is dwelling In the secret place of the Most High, In the shade of the Mighty lodgeth habitually” (YLT). There is treasure in habitually lodging in this secret place, treasure greater than anything we could ever cook up.
We’re not compelled to go to this secret place so we can hide away from the world or keep private our walk with God. We’re not encouraged to live out our faith in isolation. There is much in God’s Word about doing life and faith together. But there’s a secret place that’s just one-on-one ours. It’s our spiritual bread and butter—an intentional place in every day where we get away with Him. It’s not really about a particular space. It’s about this particular relationship. How astounding it is that we are offered a meeting place with our Creator—an invitation to enjoy His presence! Our souls are fed at every meeting in that sweet place of talking, listening and fellowshipping.
Through Moses, God told us that “man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord,” (Deuteronomy 8:3, CSB). We have a choice. We can focus our heart-of-heart’s attention on our physical needs. Bread alone. Ironically, that’s a hungry life of never feeling satisfied. Or we can make our overarching goal of every day to know and love Him so well that our truest desire is His will and His glory.
That secret safe place. It’s a real thing. A treasure. Spiritual daily bread—with no crumbs ever leftover.