17^th – 18^th December

^{Weekend Edition}

“Then Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up. “There’s a young boy here with five barley loaves and two fish. But what good is that with huge crowd?”

John 6:8-9

Did you know that Jesus fed more than 5000 people with just two fish and five loaves of barley bread? In fact John makes specific mention that it was just the ‘men alone’ that numbered 5000. That figure was not even including all the children and women!! Furthermore, not only did Jesus feed everyone until they were full, but they had so much food, that they could fill 12 baskets full of leftovers, (again another point specifically included by John to prove the enormity of this miracle).

Yet where did this amazing miracle start from? It started from a young boy offering what he had and giving his all for Jesus. This young boy hardly gets a mention in this story because of the wonderful and magnificent display of Jesus’ mighty provision. But the miracle started from the offering brought to Jesus by a young boy who gave what he had. Perhaps the boy was picked out of the crowd because he was the only one with food. Perhaps, even still, he was on a shopping errand for his family and was just curious to see what all the commotion was about. But a more probable reason is because the young boy purposefully brought what he had to Jesus and His disciples. After all, Andrew said, ‘there is a young boy here’, implying he had come to them.

If so, then the question we must ask ourselves is this: What are we holding in our hand that God can use to display His glory? What can we bring to Him, so that His Kingdom can be extended to the ends of the world? ‘When we willingly dedicate our own small resources – time, talents, or possessions – to God, He can work miracles for us and others. God can take our limited resources and multiply them beyond our wildest expectation’¹, just like He did with the young boys offering. Let’s offer God what we have and see how He uses our offering.. Be expectant…!!!