Matthew 14:13 -21
“What we need is a miracle” he said and my heart sunk a little. Nothing saps my hope more than needing a miracle. Crazy right? I hang out daily with the God of impossible, the one who can make all things possible. And yet….
When the disciples in today’s Gospel think it’s time to send these people home, I think it’s easy to scoff, shouldn’t they have known He would pull something out of the bag? and we eye roll at such lack of faith. But do we really trust that Jesus will provide every need ? Do we encourage others to sit tight and trust they will be fed? Or have you experienced some hard times in the company of the Lord that have made you place limits on what He can do?
I wonder if like me you would have sat on the grass that day, entranced by the words of Christ and thought, He is not going to care that I’m hungry, it’s so insignificant Don’t make a fuss, Don’t be the awkward one who makes life difficult by asking for something you are not entitled to. I would have sat there, kept my hunger to myself and sucked it up. The low maintenance version of Christianity, don’t we sigh with relief at the less demanding child? Isn’t this really what God wants of me, to settle for the house dog scraps?
Well.. No.
How little room we give a generous God to show His glory, how tragic that we think he just draws us to a lonely place to leave us there. Foolish to think we serve him best by never inviting him into our need! It’s either misplaced humility or a fear of rejection and disappointment. All the things that make us hold an almighty God and his miracles at a long arms length.
I think if we wandered through the crowds that day asking “what brought you here today?” There would be as many answers as people, curiosity, inexplainable pull, coerced by a friend, followed my family, by accident, yet every one that day had been led to a lonely place of need, and then had their hunger fed. Abundantly. Everyone who had responded to the call to follow got a miracle and then some.
I think we most glorify the Father in THIS place, where our hunger can meet his abundance. Where our need meets His mercy. Oh friend, If we can only be brave enough to ask.
