She just packed the lunch.
If we’ve been friends here for a while, you may have picked up on this fact:
I do not like to cook.
Cooking is a stressor that causes my neck to blotch, my face to turn crimson, and the tears to fall. (Actually, they gush.)
So. Every single time I read the story of Jesus feeding 5,000+ people, I am stunned. I mean, really. Stunned.
Cooking for one sends me into overwhelm.
Here’s a recap (Matthew 14:13-21):
Jesus had spent the day healing crowds of people. The Bible says he “had compassion on them,” which tells us that there was a lot of care and emotion that went with the healing miracles! It also tells us that there were 5,000 men PLUS women and children. That’s a whole lot of people.
When evening came, the disciples suggested they go away to someplace quiet and send the crowds away to get themselves some food. (Do you suppose this was the disciples’ way of telling Jesus that they were tired and hungry and ready for the crowds to go home? Yea. I think so too.)
But Jesus had a better idea. He told the disciples to just feed the people right there.
Can you even imagine what the disciples were thinking?
They started fretting and wringing their hands because they didn’t have the food. Philip complained, “Eight months’ wages would not buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!”
But another disciple, Andrew, started thinking outside the box, bringing a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish into the conversation (while still wondering how far that would go).
And then …
Jesus made it work. Everyone ate and they gathered twelve baskets of leftover bread pieces. Wow.
Of course, the miracle was amazing, right?
And every time I read this story, I am amazed by the influence of someone who wasn’t even there. Someone who was not a main character in the story. Someone the disciples didn’t know about.
The little boy’s mama.
She got up early that morning and packed her son a lunch. She had no idea that it would be used to feed 5,000+ people. She had no idea she would be part of a miracle.
That mama just did what she could do—what came naturally. The action wasn’t glamorous. But she was faithful. She did what was right in front of her.
Are you wondering what God wants you to do next?
Where and how you should serve, volunteer, work?
Or maybe you’re just wondering about what to do tomorrow.
How about this …
As you wait for the answer or direction, just do the thing in front of you.
Just pack the lunch.
Why? Because it matters.
In her book, Box of Butterflies: Discovering the Unexpected Blessings All Around Us, Roma Downey shares this beautiful and encouraging lesson from Mother Teresa:
“Do you think that love, in order to be genuine, has to be extraordinary?
What we need is to love without getting tired.
How does a lamp burn? Through the continuous input of small drops of oil.
If the drops of oil run out, the light of the lamp will cease, and the bridegroom will say,
‘I do not know you.’ (Matthew 25:12).
My daughters, what are these drops of oil in our lamps?
They are the small things of daily life: faithfulness, punctuality, small words of kindness,
a thought for others, our way of being silent, of looking, of speaking, and of acting.
These are the true drops of love …
Be faithful in small things, because it is in them that your strength lies.”
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