Good morning! Watching the snow gently fall to the ground this morning, with a uniformly gray sky to wash the color from life.
I thought about this passage in Mark this morning:
Late in the afternoon his disciples came to him and said, "This is a desolate place, and it is getting late. Send the crowds away so they can go to the nearby farms and villages and buy themselves some food."
But Jesus said, "You feed them."
"With what?" they asked. "It would take a small fortune to buy food for all this crowd!"
"How much food do you have?" he asked. "Go and find out."
They came back and reported, "We have five loaves of bread and two fish."
Then Jesus told the crowd to sit down in groups on the green grass. So they sat in groups of fifty or a hundred.
Jesus took the five loaves and two fish, looked up toward heaven, and asked God's blessing on the food. Breaking the loaves into pieces, he kept giving the bread and fish to the disciples to give to the people. They all ate as much as they wanted,
and they picked up twelve baskets of leftover bread and fish. Five thousand men had eaten from those five loaves and two fishes!
(Mark 6:35-44, NLT
I like this passage. Often we pick out the miracle part and leave the rest behind. However, look at how the story begins; the disciples approach Jesus with not a question, but a command. Once more, even the disciples, just back from their ministry tours, try to make the Son of God in their image. "Send them away." Jesus turns it around and tells His disciples to feed the crowd. As you and I might do, the disciples immediately start their little heads figuring and their fingers counting; only to come up woefully short on either materials or ability. What would I do when facing a crowd of 5,000 men and their families, and the master telling me, "You feed them." My mind would probably go blank and my lips start stammering. 10 - 15 thousand people, perhaps more waiting for something to eat!
Jesus then guides the disciples by having them find out exactly how much food is available to them. The count is five loaves and two fishes, hardly enough to feed 5 men, much less 5,000 men and their families. The disciples argue that the twelve of them would need to work for months to afford a meal for this many folks - and let's hope they can hold out that long without starving to death. As with us, Jesus is trying to guide His disciples to believe in His miracle working power, and they continue to figure on their own resources only. How often do we find ourselves doing the same thing? I have this much and I want to do this much, but the boss won't give me a raise, and even that would only allow for this much... and on our thinking goes. Money, strength, will power - we all think only in our own meager resources when we know very well that the limitless strength and power of God waits only for us to come to the end of our resources and trust in Him! The disciples sat back with full stomachs and counted 12 baskets of leftover food after the Master fed those thousands with a few small loaves and fishes.
Did you take a recent paycheck, look at the amount, figure 10%, and let the Lord know that this is what you received and so this is what the Lord gets back? Quite likely you or I may have done just that. Today, let's worry less about that legalistic 10% and give with a joyous heart. You know how many bills or other obligations you have, give with joy and worry less about whether you are giving a certain percentage. Perhaps you can give only a bit of pocket change, notice that 5 loaves wouldn't even begin to feed 10% of the people gathered there on that day. You might be able to give millions, comprising 95% of your income. Praise God and don't boast about it, for whether you can give 1% or 100%, it is God who grants us the ability to give joyously.
5,000 men and their families? Did my mind start to narrow the possibilities? Look at that family there. Look how thin they are, perhaps the few loaves and fishes should go to them, the other families will understand. How about feeding as many children as possible, the hungrier looking ones? No, even as the disciples stumbled for an answer, the Teacher told them to start passing the food out... and every man, woman, and child in that huge crowd ate until satisfied.
Trust in Jesus!
Bucky
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