Our Daily Bread

George Barclay sits in a waiting room, nervous and hopeful. He has been hoping for a promotion and a raise, and now Mr. Conworth has called him in for a meeting - though the secretary keeps announcing him as "Mr. Broccoli" no matter how many times he corrects her. Back at home, the rest of the family is already spending the money. Jimmy wants to know how big the raise will be, since a raise for Dad surely means bigger allowances for everyone. Donna claims she has not thought about it at all, then admits she would like new clothes and, since her learner's permit is only a few months away, maybe a car. Mary dreams of a remodeled kitchen and a really nice vacation - Tahiti, if she can dream. When George walks in the door, they line up and serenade him with "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow." Then George breaks the news. There is no promotion and no raise. The company is closing its Odyssey plant and moving to Hope, Arkansas, and his job is being phased out. He has been laid off.

Donna declares that panic is very appropriate and that the family is going to be destitute, like the people on the evening news who take in laundry, beg in front of grocery stores, and live on pigeons and squirrels from the park. That night George dreams exactly that: Mary ironing shirt number 200 at a nickel apiece, the kids run off by the police for begging at City Hall, and George himself proudly bringing home a scrawny animal for the stew pot that looks a lot more like a rat than a squirrel. He wakes with a shout. Talking it over with Mary, he admits that he has had a job ever since he finished college, this is the first time in his life he has ever been out of work, and he does not know what to do if he cannot provide for his family anymore. Mary takes his hand and says they are going to do what they should have done the moment he came home: pray. Together they ask God to protect them, provide for them, and help George find the job God wants him to have.

The next morning Jimmy and Donna decide they should help out by getting jobs of their own, and Mary announces she will do the same. George warns them all not to be disappointed, because the key to finding a job is persistence. Then everything happens backwards. While George is turned away again and again - one company has no openings, another says he is underqualified, and Dale Jacobs at the Odyssey Times says the paper cannot afford someone so overqualified - Mary lands a job as recreation director for City Parks, Donna becomes a part-time stock clerk at Melman's Fashions on her very first try, and Jimmy signs on to deliver papers for the Odyssey Times. At breakfast Mary tallies up their three salaries and finds that with tightened belts the family can pay its bills just fine. Instead of being relieved, George quietly excuses himself for his appointment at the unemployment office. Mary explains to the puzzled kids that a job means more to their dad than money; it is part of who he is, and without one he feels like a nobody.

At the unemployment office, after a brisk clerk shuffles him toward a form and a row of chairs, George ends up sitting next to a man who has been coming there for six months yet seems strangely at peace. The man explains that he looks for work every day, but the good Lord has taken care of his family so far - they do not always get what they want, but they get what they need, sometimes just in the nick of time. "Our daily bread," he calls it. Being in a position where he is more dependent on God, he says, has shown him how great and how in control God really is, and that is what gives him peace - not something you can conjure up yourself. George admits the man is saying what George always thought he believed; the man gently suggests that sometimes it takes a humbling experience like this one to prove it.

When George gets home, he finds his family waiting for him in the offices of "Barclay Co." After reviewing his qualifications - with some room for improvement in the mowing-the-lawn department - they offer him the position of Managing Director, in charge of balancing the accounts, quality control, and general scheduling, since the three wage-earners have concluded they cannot properly manage themselves. The benefits package includes unlimited coffee breaks and the unconditional support of a family who loves him, with displays of affection available on request. George does not see how he can refuse, and he accepts the offer - along with a round of hugs.