Twelve baskets
Sunday March 29th 2015, 10:07 pm
Filed under: Life

Sunday School and the subject was the feeding of the five thousand that had come to the hilltop to hear Jesus speak and now had a long journey home ahead of them. Jesus told his disciples he didn’t want them fainting from hunger along the way, we needed to take care of these people here.

A stunned, “Two hundred pennyworth would not suffice!” as in, And what are WE supposed to do about it! gave way to, “Here is a lad with five small barley loaves and two little fishes but what are they among so many?”

The story goes on to say that after the blessing and after all had eaten, in the hands of God that young boy’s gift had become twelve baskets’ worth of leftovers.

And the thought occurred to me and I raised my hand, remembering how much young teenage boys eat and what a sacrifice that might have been, varying with the actual age of the kid.

“Y’know, he could have squirreled that quietly away and just been glad he’d had the foresight to pack a picnic (or that his mom had). But instead he offered his food up in hopes of helping others who might need it more. There’s no way he could have known the entire crowd would have a full meal from what he’d offered, no way he could ever have known that two thousand years later his small act of kindness would still be blessing countless other peoples’ lives. It is a beautiful metaphor for the idea that every act of kindness we do takes on an eternal life of its own, far beyond our ability to see.”

And I’m sitting here thinking, I need to always remember to be ready with that first basket. In whatever form it needs to come in. To see in the moment and not think of myself first. One can only hope.


4 Comments so far
Leave a comment

The miracle could have been that the one boy’s sacrifice magnified to feed all, or that others pulled out what they were keeping back out of ‘greed’ because now they felt guilty perhaps, and there really had been enough all along, once people were willing to give what they had to other? It always makes me think… Also how many church potlucks have you attended were everyone brought something (not a huge amount but a dish) and there were TONS of leftovers. I often think of it that way too. lol

Comment by Helen 03.30.15 @ 12:53 am

As has been said (in a very different context), “the readiness is all.” Good, good thought, thank you.

Comment by Beth in Maryland 03.30.15 @ 9:53 am

Helen’s comment made me think, too.

Comment by LynnM 03.30.15 @ 10:38 am

This post takes the expression “food for thought” to a whole new level!

Thank you for writting it. 🙂

Comment by Suzanne from Montreal 03.30.15 @ 10:41 am



Leave a comment
Line and paragraph breaks automatic, e-mail address never displayed, HTML allowed: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

(required)

(required)