Many of the things...
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Many of the things that we do unconsciously, or perhaps it would be better to say without thinking, say a great deal about us. I have noticed, for example, how some folks always clean their plate at meals -- righteously, almost religiously, clean. I have noticed a pattern in some other people: they never clean their plate, eat the last cookie, finish off refrigerator leftovers. Often the former pattern indicates that the person grew up in a frugal, even somewhat impoverished, environment. The second pattern likely indicates that the person has come from a wealthy background where it was considered uncouth to clean one's plate; leaving something uneaten was a sign of affluence. Wolfing down every last scrap would signify a kind of unseemly desperation.
It is very easy not to see the meaning behind the things that we do. As the proverb has it, "We miss the forest for the trees." The people in this story from John are so preoccupied with the food they ate, that they totally missed the significance of the event. They got all excited about the food that perishes, but missed the food that endures to eternal life.
-- Jech
