Between Thanksgiving and Christmas in the US, food is plentiful and hunger scarce. At least that’s what many people talk about as they complain of weight gain and holiday parties. However, anyone with connections to food banks and helping agencies is aware that gas bills often eat better than their owners.

People who live at the margins know hunger.

The margins starve souls, too. One review of Jewish history describes their time in the wilderness between Egypt and Israel: “They were hungry and thirsty. Their soul fainted within them.” They weren’t just without food, they were without hope.

When Mary recited a poem she had composed, that history came to mind, the part of it where the writer says,

Let them give thanks to the LORD for his unfailing love
and his wonderful deeds for men, for he satisfies the thirsty
and fills the hungry with good things. (Psalm 107:8-9)

Mary said, “He has filled the hungry with good things.”

When we have plenty to eat, whether for body or soul, we have little need to anticipate anything. Food is expected, and we debate whether we like our choices, and we watch choices multiply: whole, 2%, skim, half and half, sugar, sweetener (pink), sweetener (yellow), sweetener (blue).

When our souls are starving, empty, craving, then we cry out for food: “More. Please, sir, can I have some more?”

And if we find the Provider—like Israel, like Mary, like crowds in a meadow, like disciples around a table or on a beach, like a woman by a well craving relationship—we find that “He has filled the hungry with good things.”

(From Luke 1:46-55)