Image from missionariesofprayer.org
Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a deserted place by himself. But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns. When he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them and cured their sick. When it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, ‘This is a deserted place, and the hour is now late; send the crowds away so that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves.’ Jesus said to them, ‘They need not go away; you give them something to eat.’ They replied, ‘We have nothing here but five loaves and two fish.’ And he said, ‘Bring them here to me.’ Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. And all ate and were filled; and they took up what was left over of the broken pieces, twelve baskets full. And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children. (Matthew 14:13-21)
A miracle is an unexpected, unexplainable blessing from God; meant to be enjoyed rather than understood. This is my definition of a miracle after 41 years of ministry. People will always wonder and some ask, "What is a miracle?" And today's passage deals with one of the most difficult to explain miracles of Jesus. Late in the evening, in the middle of nowhere, Jesus' compassion worries the disciples, for He wants the crowds who have been following Him, who have been healed of their sicknesses, to be fed. They shared with Jesus their desire: "Send them away so that they can go buy food for themselves." Jesus says, "Nah, here's what's going to happen; you all feed them." Apparently, the disciples had already thought about that and they had a complete count of what resources they had: 5 loaves of bread, 2 fish (see the image above). Jesus says, "Bring those here." Jesus had asked the disciples to make the people sit; He takes the food, looks up to heaven and blesses and breaks the loaves and gives them to the disciples and the disciples takes them to the crowd and five thousand men, not counting women and children, were fed.
You and I have had our share of unexplainable blessings. But these stories, like this one, are meant to be shared, to encourage, and enable others to see faith is real and faith continues to happen all around us. The sadness is that the Church is getting more silent by the day; miracles still happen, but we say very little, if anything about them. What is encouraging is how churches during this time of year are gearing up to share blessings with others. One church shared on FaceBook that the gathering of backpacks and school supplies blessed the custodian of that church, who took the idea back to her church and members of that church told their friends, who in turn told their church, and now a whole community of needy children may be receiving backpacks filled with school supplies. Another church gives out backpacks with school supplies but asks the students bring their backpacks back so that they can be filled with food for the weekend, because many children do not have anything to eat on Saturdays and Sundays. We, the Church are, and should be miracle-makers, bringing unexpected, unexplainable blessings to others.
PRAYER: Loving God, thank You for providing just what we need, when we need it. Thank You for the way some churches are "getting it" and sharing with others. I pray that this story would be forwarded by this dear reader, so that others would hear, and "get it" and share with others; there is still so much to do. Bless us to be blessings; in Christ Jesus we pray, amen.
Have a great and blessed day in the Lord! Be a blessing! Share something unexplainable with someone!
Eradio Valverde
