Manna (After All These Years)

Chris Renzema's “Manna (After All These Years)” is an honest song about faith in a dry stretch. It starts by saying that it feels like forty years since the burning bush, and even longer since he felt the heat of that flame. He admits he hoped there would be a few more of those moments along the way, but he still believes God is there, even in the waiting.

The chorus shows what that belief looks like: after all these years he still loves God and will still praise his holy name. Even when he has lost his taste for manna, it comes from heaven all the same, every day. The second verse remembers the sea splitting and the heart splitting, and confesses that on some days he is afraid that meeting God was only a dream. He asks God to wake some faith in him as he falls asleep. The song ends with the thought that, whether or not he recognizes the miracle hidden in ordinary things, the bread of heaven is offered either way. The folk-pop sound is gentle and the words refuse to dress up the doubt. It speaks to long-time believers who feel their spiritual life has become routine, as well as those in a season of waiting, and it assures them that daily provision still arrives.

Bread raining from heaven is Exodus 16:4. The burning bush is Exodus 3:2, and Jesus as the bread of life is John 6:35.