Give God What You’ve Got

 “Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?” John 6:9

“It’s just five loaves of bread and two fish. What good will that do?  There’s thousands of people in this crowd!  But they’re asking if we have anything.  I guess this is something.”

I imagine the little’s boy’s thoughts were along these lines in the crowd of hungry people who’d been listening to “this Jesus guy” teach for so long. 

He looked at his brown paper bag, thought of the food Mom and Dad had packed him in case he got hungry.  He WAS hungry and Jesus had finally stopped teaching. This was his chance to grab a bite. But then the teacher’s close friends asked if anyone had anything to eat. He knew he did, but it was only enough for him.

Still, he told the men that he had a little bit of food.  Then they TOOK it from him. Oh great, he thought.  “They took all I had. What good can this do? And now my lunch is gone.”

“This is all we could find. It won’t do any good.” the disciples said to Jesus.  They gave it to him anyway, when he asked them for it. Then Jesus prayed and shocked everyone (including the disciples) when the five loaves and the two fish suddenly became too much for even the thousands of them to eat.  With all the miracles they seen Jesus perform by this time, you’d think his disciples wouldn’t be surprised. But they still couldn’t believe it. It didn’t make any sense. 

Before we’re too hard on the disciples though, let’s take a look at how we think.  Sometimes we can be like the little boy, seeing all the needs around us. We think we can’t make a dent in the world around us. Not really, especially with thousands of needy people.  

But maybe, just maybe, we should do what God says and give him what we have. He doesn’t ask us to solve the problem, just to give him what we have. When the little boy gave his lunch to the disciples and they gave it to Jesus, He took it and multiplied it to bless and care for thousands in ways no one could have imagined. 

Give God what you’ve got. He’ll take care of the rest.