Milkman’s Milk

Sometimes my love for the old-fashioned conflicts with my quest for frugal living. The most recent example is my decision to purchase milk from the milkman. To readers below the age of 40, the milkman is a chap who comes early in the morning and leaves a bottle or two of milk on the doorstep in time for breakfast. At 65 pence a pint, it’s not cheap, and runs the risk of making even the Co-op competetive. So it might be good old fashioned service, but it doesn’t cost old fashioned prices. Furthermore, as it’s all ordered and paid for online, I have yet to meet my milkman, who remains as faceless as the lady inside the supermarket self-checkout -though he’s a dozen times less annoying. Overall, I rather like it all. The milk is fresh and tasty while the bottles are collected, washed and reused. The other major advantage is that I never run out. If I do use too much, the next delivery puts it aright. Neither do I buy too much and find myself drinking 3 pints at a time because it has ‘started to turn’.

In Exodus 16, God provided for Israel a daily portion of manna:

Then the children of Israel did so and gathered, some more, some less. So when they measured it by omers, he who gathered much had nothing left over, and he who gathered little had no lack. Every man had gathered according to each one’s need. And Moses said, “Let no one leave any of it till morning.”

No one went hungry and no one grew fat or wealthy for having gathered too much. The Lord provided for their needs on a daily basis. Each day, the Lord gives us sufficient joy, peace and grace for that short period. Not too much, lest we grow lax or conceited; not too little that we stumble and wither. 

As your days—so shall your strength be. Deuteronomy 33:25