This morning, I read the story in scripture of the day Jesus fed 5,000 people with five loaves of bread and two fish. It really made me think.
Somewhere in that crowd of 5,000 hungry people, someone decided to give up what little food they had on them, into the hands of this seemingly crazy person who was under some notion that it would be enough to feed the entire crowd. If that had been you or me, would we have given up our food? It seems like a lost cause. It would be a waste of a perfectly good meal. I would've probably eaten half of it and saved the other half for the trip home. And then inwardly snickered at the rest of the fools who didn't think to pack a lunch.
But whoever had the food in that story wasn't like me. They gave up their lunchbox. And it turns out they weren't so crazy, because the story tells that by the end of the meal, there was not only enough food, but there was more than enough. Twelve baskets full. I guess in this case mere sufficiency isn't really God's style - it would appear He prefers abundance. Overflowing, prodigious, unimaginable abundance.
Sometimes I think I spend too much time trying to give up my lunchbox to the wrong people. There are the people who take you for everything you've got, and then there are those who repay you in fairness. But in the right hands, your small lunchbox could be returned to you in a feast fit for five thousand. Now, I know I only have so little to give. When I consider how much hunger, pain and suffering there is in the world, it seems impossible that anything I could give would ever put a dent in the world's sorrows. And then I consider the story of how five loaves of bread and two fish fed five thousand people, and I realize: maybe it's not how much I have to give. It's who I give it to. In the right hands, my little lunchbox just might have enough in it to turn a morsel into a miracle.
this is awesome. thanks for the affirmation. i would eat your lunch any day of the week, provided there was a lot of cheese in it. just sayin.
Posted by: Richie | 01/06/2010 at 12:04 AM