June 18, 2016 

“On their return the apostles told Jesus all they had done. He took them with him and withdrew privately to a city called Bethsaida. When the crowds found out about it, they followed him; and he welcomed them, and spoke to them about the kingdom of God, and healed those who needed to be cured. The day was drawing to a close, and the twelve came to him and said, “Send the crowd away, so that they may go into the surrounding villages and countryside, to lodge and get provisions; for we are here in a deserted place.” But he said to them, “You give them something to eat.” They said, “We have no more than five loaves and two fish—unless we are to go and buy food for all these people.” For there were about five thousand men. And taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke them, and gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd. And all ate and were filled. What was left over was gathered up, twelve baskets of broken pieces.” Luke 9:10-17

In the dollar spot bin I spy “Grow Capsules”. These are little pill like capsules that when you drop them into a cup of water, the outer shell dissolves to reveal something. The something in this case is a pack of little critters – little bug like creatures. Just like sidewalk chalk, every kid likes things that dissolve in water to magically turn into something else.

Some would say that this is what Jesus did in the feeding stories, that he somehow magically turned one thing into many things. Explanations abound as to how Jesus accomplished this miracle – explanations that discount the miracle. Some say everyone had also brought a small lunch with them, besides the young boy, so they all simply ate what they had brought. Others say Jesus and the disciples actually supplied the food. The miracle comes through the hands and words of Jesus and through the actions of the disciples. Jesus blessed the food and distributed the items to the disciples, who then handed out the food to the crowd. It was not magic – it was a miracle. It is one of those things that Jesus did where we marvel at his ability to meet the needs of so many. But isn’t that still the point today? We still marvel at Jesus’ ability to meet the needs of billions today. The key, though, is that just like Jesus needed the disciples to be part of the miracles of their day, Jesus needs current-day disciples to be a part of his miracles today. Go out and be someone’s miracle.

Pastor Dave