A Safe Hunger

A few years ago, I chaperoned my youngest child on a field trip to the Aquarium. Before we left for our adventure, his teacher gathered the class on a rug at the front of the classroom. She proceeded to instruct the class on essential details for the day. One particular detail about lunch left me pondering.

She said, “Children, we will eat lunch at 11:30 today. You’ve already had a snack, but I know some of you will be hungry. Just know that it is a safe hunger. You are not in danger.”

Her statement caught me off guard, inviting me into deeper contemplation.

“Just know that it is a safe hunger. You are not in danger.”

I kept repeating the phrase in my mind as I considered the spiritual weight of a safe hunger. Hunger is a natural signal — a reminder that something within us needs tending. Scripture names Jesus as the Bread of Life, the One who meets us where longing surfaces and does not turn us away.

Many of us experience a safe hunger in our souls, but fail to recognize that we are not in danger when we bring our hunger to Christ to be satisfied. When hunger feels frightening, we often reach for whatever promises relief — even when it leaves us more weary than before.

If only we could pause for a moment when the pains of hunger strike and remind our souls that our hunger is safe. Safe to be tended to by our loving Savior and brought to Him with no shame. 

Even when we forget, Jesus approaches us just as He did the woman at the well. She came seeking water, and He met her deeper hunger.

Hunger did not put her in danger. It became the place where she was met.