A young boy.
Very little food.
Thousands of people present.
Time and again have i tried to imagine just how grand the experience of this miracle must have been. I think i also remember a film clip showing bread simply multiplying. Like magic.
Yesterday however i was presented with a different, possibility of a learning interpretation of this miracle. What this miracle has to say to me...today... 2011. I will share this with you.
So just imagine. what if most of the people actually had a small ration of food in fact?
What if the young boy was the only one who was ready to share his quantitatively insignificant portion of food?
Could the hungry people have actually had the food right there in there bags?
Could it be that they just where afraid to bring it out because they felt it was insignificant?....or because they feared that their small portion would end up taken away from them by thousands of hungry mouths?
Just imagine than just what we could learn from the passage....
The young boy was neither demotivated by the size of his portion, nor discouraged by his age, he offered it to Jesus trusting he would know how to use it best.
Through this small gesture by a small boy Jesus invited the crowd to equally trust in him - they will all eat. An encouragement to all ...
...to share...
...to use their rations of food as small as they could be
...to realize that we need not be afraid of sharing, indeed it is only in sharing that we realize how rich we are, how we need nothing else - when everybody had eaten, there where still bags of left overs!.
This interpretation reminds me a lot of some bbqs organised by youth-groups and friends. When we say everybody gets his own food. Dont we all think of what we can bring to share too? Don't we always end up with more than everybody could ever eat?
In this scenario i am led to think of such questions as:
what are my small portions that i have offered to Jesus some time in my life? What was made out of them?
What food might I be so hungry for? Relationships? Peace? .... could the key to them be right in my bag?
Could i just be afraid that what i can do is too small?, with whom could i share it? beware of thinking that your friends will eat your share! they probably got something to share with you too!
the problem is how to start.
Do like the small boy did.
Present your small portion to God. There will still be bags left after everybody has eaten!
Comments
We gain strength, courage, and confidence by each experience in which we really stop to look fear in the face... we must do that which we think we cannot.