What, No McDonalds?

Yesterday in Sunday School Bob was unpacking the feeding of the 5,000 passage in Matthew 14. He did an exquisite job of seeing it in a Christocentric way. I appreciated what he had to say. I was reminded of Isaiah 25:6, “On this mountain the LORD of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined.”

While Jesus is the focus of the passage, I was also reminded of how the Lord used the boy’s lunch to feed thousands of people. It was a simple lunch that the lad might have been hesitant to let go of. Yet, Jesus took that lunch and met needs.

This is a picture of ministry. We have gifts. Often we think our gifts are paltry compared to what others have. We have loaves and fishes while others have vichyssoise. And, looking at our responsibilities we might not want to give up our loaves and fishes. What will we eat?

Yet, God takes what we have, as paltry as it might seem, and multiplies it. We do our best always wishing our best were better. Even after we hand over our loaves and fishes we are thinking that they weren’t good enough. And, they weren’t. This, however, isn’t our concern. God is a God of means and he abundantly uses the little we have. So, rather than thinking the fish are small and the loaves are stale, let us give what we have to the Lord and believe that he will use our gifts to meet the needs of our brothers and sisters, and ours as well. Amazing.