Today is Sandwich Day.

The sandwich actually goes back as far as the first century bc when the famous rabbi, Hillel the Elder, started the custom of eating a mixture of chopped nuts, apples, and spices between two matzos. In the Middle Ages, thick slices of coarse stale bread called trenchers were used instead of plates. Piles of meats and other foods were placed on top of the bread to be eaten with the fingers.

But it wasn’t until the late 1700s that the first written record of sandwich appeared in a Londoner’s journal. The cooks at London’s Beef Steak Club were said to have invented the first sandwich in 1762. John Montague, the Fourth Earl of Sandwich, was a frequent diner at the restaurant and a devoted card player. Reluctant to quit playing, Montague would order his valet to bring his meal to him—a piece of meat tucked between two pieces of bread. Soon others began ordering “the same as Sandwich” and the name stuck!

However you slice it, bread is what makes the sandwich. Without it, what do you have? A slice of ham and cheese. Tuna on a plate. A glob of peanut butter and jelly. Clearly, it’s the bread that gives the definition and substance to this lunchtime staple. Throughout all cultures and ages, bread has been an important food source.

Jesus called himself “the living bread that came down out of heaven.” Just as we all need bread and food to satisfy our hunger and to help keep us alive, we also need Jesus to keep us going spiritually. And just as we need to eat every day, we need to connect with Jesus on a daily basis. That means spending time praying and reading the Bible to get our daily serving of “living bread.”

Have you had your daily bread?

I am the living bread that came down out of heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will live forever; this bread is my flesh, offered so the world may live (John 6:51).

To Do

Make up your own sandwich creation today. Enjoy it, and then explain to someone about the “living bread.”

Also on this day

1952—Clarence Birdseye marketed frozen peas.

1957—Sputnik II was launched by the Soviet Union. It was the first man-made satellite to put an animal into space, a dog named Laika.

1998—Minnesota elected Jesse “The Body” Ventura, a former pro wrestler, as governor.

From Betsy Schmitt and Dave Veerman, 365 Trivia Twist Devotions: An Almanac of Fun Facts and Spiritual Truth for Every Day of the Year (Cincinnati: Standard, 2005). Scripture quotations are from the New Living Translation unless otherwise noted.