Tuesday Thought – October 13, 2015

Good Morning Friends,

“The Twelve came to him and said, ‘Send the crowd away so they can go to the surrounding villages and find food and lodging, because we are in a remote place here.’ He replied, ‘You give them something to eat.’ They answered, ‘We have only five loaves of bread and two fish — unless we go and buy food for all this crowd.’ (About five thousand men were there.) He said to his disciples, ‘Have them sit down in groups of about fifty each.’ Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke them. Then he gave them to the disciples to set before the people. They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls that were left over.” (Luke 9:12-17)

This is a story of a great miracle of Jesus. He demonstrated His compassion for the simplest needs of the people – they were hungry. He demonstrated His awesome power – He can multiply bread and fish. He demonstrated His ability to do great things with few resources – He fed thousands with very little.

That last point is a reminder that Jesus can do amazing things through the little that we have to offer Him. None of us has much – even the most talented among us doesn’t have much to offer the Almighty God. God can take our little bits and use them to do mighty things that will accomplish His purposes.

There is one strange question in this story that we often overlook. When the apostles first brought the need to Jesus, He responded with this question: “You give them something to eat.” It’s a strange question because the apostles didn’t have anything to give the crowd and surely Jesus knew that. It was a strange question because what was needed was Jesus’ touch and He proved in just a moment that He was willing to provide that.

I think Jesus wanted a couple of things from that question:

He wanted the disciples to realize how little they had to offer.

He wanted them to realize how much they needed Him.

He wanted them to know that He wanted to use them.

He wants us to see the same things as we look at the needs around us.

His, by Grace, Steve