When I was
growing up in California, our schools didn’t have cafeterias. There were 22 elementary schools in our
district, most of them built in the 1950’s during the post-war boom when
everyone and their brother or sister wanted to move to the land of palm trees
and movie stars. Schools were built so fast, the districts didn’t have the money to include cafeterias. They said they would add them later. They never did.
Everyone brought
their lunch from home, even the teachers.
Occasionally, someone forgot their lunch at home. Without a cafeteria, what do you think happened
to the students who forgot their lunch?
Did they go home? Did they go
hungry? No, they ate like royalty! Other children shared part of their lunches
with the one who was without, and in the end, that child usually had the
biggest, best lunch of anyone!
Today’s
story involves a little boy who shared his lunch and helped Jesus to feed a
whole bunch of people.
One time,
Jesus and his disciples were on a large hill by the Sea of Galilee. Jesus looked out and saw a big crowd of people
coming toward him. They had heard about
the amazing things Jesus had done—like healing a blind man, for example—and they
wanted to meet him. It was close to
lunch time, so Jesus asked his disciple, Philip, “How are we going to buy bread
to feed all of these people?”
Philip said,
“Are you kidding? We don’t have close to
what it would cost to buy just a little bit of food for each person!’
Another of
Jesus’ disciples named Andrew said, “There’s a young boy here who has five
rolls and two fish, but what is that when there are so many people to feed?”
Jesus told
the disciples to tell everyone to sit down.
The people sat down on the grass.
There were 5,000 men, not counting the women and children! Jesus gave thanks to God for the food, and
then passed it out to the entire crowd. Everyone
had more than enough to eat. When they
were finished, Jesus told the disciples to pick up the leftovers. They filled 12 baskets!
The people were amazed and filled with awe. “Surely this man is the prophet sent by God,” they said.
God's gifts are over-the-top! He gives us what we need and then some.
Thanks be to God!
