God does not bake Bread.
People, PoP broke my heart not too long ago when he said there is a miracle in your house, and you have to work it. I thought, Bishop, wait a minute. I understood through the years that miracles require humans in partnership with the divine to make them happen. That understanding led me to grief therapy after my sister-mum passed because I knew drinking groundnut oil (sorry, anointing oil) alone was not enough to get me going. Same reason, I am trying to eat healthily, but some Nigerian meals would not leave me alone to be great.
Also, it was because I understood in my own way the nature of miracles that I don't believe God will allow someone to enter the toilet and land in a foreign country while I paid a particular useless airline for that terrible flight that year. Then he went further and said, work the Manna in your house. And I thought, PoP, wait, you mean I have to work Manna too? Then in his characteristic manner, he said, work that thing! Work that thing! I always thought Manna was a ready-made food since it came from heaven. As a manner of fact, I have always dreamed that when I make it past the Babacue fire to heaven, I will tell the Angels to have snail pie(i don't eat meat pie again) ready for me while I give sister-mum all the gist of what happened before coming to join her.
After church, I pulled out my bible and realized that Manna was no ready-made food. Yes, I only realized not too long. It dawned on me that Manna was a heavenly provision that required intense human labor. The people to whom it was given had to
1. Gather it
2. Ground
3. Beat it
4. Baked it in pans (Numbers 11:8)
If opportunity, they say come in work overall. It seems that Manna comes in work overall, so much so that it sometimes seems unrecognizable. Hence the children of Israel ask, "what is this? I reflect on my life, and I realize the same principle. Yes, I got support from my mentors and sponsor, but I worked nonetheless.
Today, I present to you all my Manna which I worked and worked. I work so tey i tire. Thanks to my academic co-laborer, sponsor, and mentor, Professor Saheed Aderinto, for reading several drafts. To one of my amazing and coolest Professors, that would not be named, who also read several drafts. We made this baked manna together.
To sister-mum, who would walk into my room in the dead of night, seeing me with laptop in my hand, would ask, "Rosemary, what did they ask you to do this time again? ". See, If my sister-mum knew the house of reviewer two, she would pay them a visit to ask them some questions.
And to numerous friends who think I am a genius even though Asun, killiish, and peppered snail seller keep getting my money, thank you for believing in me.
What is your Manna? ( idea, business, career, school, product, design?) like Bishop, I tell you, work that thing! Work that thing!
My latest article: New Directions for Researching and Writing African Feminist Histories
The first 50 downloads are free. Use this link https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1f-NC-6kqdhW9
Going to work on my next Manna!
Posted on Facebook on November 10, 2022.
