And He That Hath No Money, Come Buy and Eat

Yesterday I took one of the ladies I visit teach grocery shopping. She doesn’t have a car, and didn’t want to take the bus shopping. She is an older lady and kind of has a hard time getting around, so we had a fun time: her having a hard time getting out of the car and carrying groceries because she is just older, and me having a hard time because of my growing stomach. She was shopping for the whole month, so our shopping involved quite a lot of work—putting everything into the cart (2 carts), checking out, loading it into the trunk, unloading it into her apartment, putting it all on the elevator, unloading it from the elevator and carrying it into her apartment. I had fun helping her and we both had a good time, even though I got pretty tired. I kept thinking that service isn’t always meant to be convenient.

While I was in the store, I watched Judy wheeling her cart around. It was more comfortable for her to walk while leaning on the cart. I looked around and noticed some of the other people in the store: an old lady who was taking miniscule steps while slowly pushing her cart up the aisle, a young man who looked rushed, an older, tall man who was carefully perusing each aisle, and a young woman with a baby. I don’t know where the thought came from, but I wondered how many of these people would put the same effort into going to church on Sunday that they were putting into grocery shopping. Some of them looked like they could barely get around, but there they were picking out groceries.

Judy hasn’t come to church for at least five years. I talked her into coming to Enrichment once, but she still hasn’t come back to church. Either her back hurts, or her kids are in town, or something or other. As I thought about it, I felt a little of the sadness our Heavenly Father must feel when he sees us so quick to work for physical nourishment and sluggish to work for spiritual nourishment. Later when I was reading the Book of Mormon I noticed the scripture, “Come, my brethren, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters; and he that hath no money, come buy and eat; yea, come buy wine and milk without money and without price” (2 Nephi 9:50). The scripture are full of invitations to drink of living waters, or to eat of the bread of life. Those invitations are worth so much more than a loaf of bread, or piece of chicken, but it sometimes can be hard to put the same amount of effort into spiritual nourishment as we do physical nourishment.

I wonder how Christ must have felt when after feeding the multitude of 5,000 he taught a sermon on the Bread of Life. He was offering his followers something of much greater value than bread and fish, something of lasting importance, but many of them weren’t interested. He taught, “I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.” After his sermon John records that “From that time, many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him” (John 6: 66). Christ must have felt sorrow for those people who, disappointed not to get another free meal walked away, never truly understanding. Christ was offering himself as a Savior; offering his own flesh and blood to save us. Elder Holland pleaded with us in the last conference that “these scenes of Christ’s sacrifice, (and I would insert scenes of Christ’s teachings) laced with moments of denial and abandonment . . . must never be reenacted by us. . .that never again will he find only unresponsive onlookers when He sees you and me along his Via Dolorosa in our present day” (None Were With Him, Ensign May 2009).President David O. McKay said, “No more sacred ordinance is administered in the Church of Christ than the administering of the sacrament.” (Teachings of the Presidents of the Church, 34). If we truly understood the sacred nature of this covenant, we would make every effort to be there and be nourished by the spirit. Perhaps more of an effort than we do to have food in our homes or on our tables.



President Faust said, “I hope that we will always hunger and thirst for the word of the Lord through His servants, the prophets, and that we may be filled each week as we attend our sacrament meetings and renew our covenants.”—President James E. Faust, Spiritual Nutrients, Ensign November 2006.

As we stood in the checkout line, out of the blue Judy turned to me and said, “When I get settled in my new place I am going to come to church once a month.” I smiled and told her that would help her more than anything I could do for her. I hope that she does, and I hope I can remember to place the same amount of time and effort on spiritual nourishment as I do on physical nourishment. I realized that if I do some of the things I do to physically nourish myself and family (plan out meals, make a list, go looking for certain items, take time to cook, take time to eat) on spiritual nourishment (plan out what I want to study, search for certain things, take time to sit down and enjoy the scriptures) how much of a difference that could make. I hope that we can all search the words of the prophets, and seek to “have communion with God, through his Holy Spirit,” which President McKay said “is one of the noblest aspirations of life” (Teachings of the Presidents of the Church 30).