Just when you think you do not have enough.....comes the miracle!

 My name is Timmy and I didn’t have a very ordinary day today.  It started pretty normal but turned into something like I have never seen before! My daily chore is to go to Joachim’s to buy bread and then stop at the Galilee to catch a couple of fish for dinner.  It gets pretty boring doing the same old thing every day, but as the oldest son in the house, I am the only one to go out alone. 

Today Joachim had some extra bread, five loaves, which is more than we need, but he didn’t charge me for it, so I willingly took it. It’s yesterday’s bread, might even be the day before. I said, "Thank you so much for your generosity, my mother will be so pleased.”  Then I headed off to get some fish.

It’s always easy getting in the water and catching the fish. Today the water felt so good because it is so hot. I swam a long time before I got serious about catching any fish. I used my bare hands and spend a lot of time giggling every time one of those crazy fish slipped through my fingers.  While walking to the sea is boring every day I do have lots of fun in the water, I wouldn’t want my mother to know how much fun I am having, she might give me another chore. I don’t think work is supposed to be fun.

When it was time to head home, I was walking along the shore and I saw a whole lot of people on the hillside. Curious I wandered over there. A good-looking guy was teaching, I didn’t really understand what he was saying, something about leaving your riches and following him. I was standing there for a while when this scruffy-looking guy came up and took my bread and fish!  I shouldn’t have left them on the ground, but I did.  I chased after him, but his long legs, taking bigger steps than mine, outran me. By the time I caught up, he was handing my stuff to the teacher.  O NO!  I even had extra and now I had nothing!  What am I going to do?  I began to cry.  I would be in so much trouble and I would be late and have nothing to show for it.

The teacher lifted up my food and thanked God for it, he was saying a Jewish blessing. Because he was praying I closed my eyes and bowed my head. When I opened them, I couldn’t believe what I saw!  Hundreds and hundreds of loaves of bread, exactly like the five I had, and thousands of perch fish, just like mine.  

People were coming from every direction to get some, the men that seemed to be friends of the teacher, began passing it out.  I stood dumbfounded, mad and scared. Then I looked up and this man was standing there.  He said, "My name is Andrew. Thank you for sharing everything you had with us.  Please take this.”  And with that he gave me three times the number of fish and double the loaves that he took from me.   

The teacher then also came over to me and he said something strange, “It is such as these little ones, who enter the Kingdom of Heaven.”  He touched my head and blessed me.  I felt a strange  surge of energy come through me, and I feel so so happy.  I cannot wait to get home and tell my mom.

………………………….

Gracious God, every miracle contains your excessive love, may I be eager and ready for you to multiply my need with abundance.  Amen.

John 6   Jesus Feeds the Five Thousand

6 After this Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias. ² And a large crowd was following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing on the sick. ³ Jesus went up on the mountain, and there he sat down with his disciples. ⁴ Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand. ⁵ Lifting up his eyes, then, and seeing that a large crowd was coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?” ⁶ He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he would do. ⁷ Philip answered him, “Two hundred denarii^[a] worth of bread would not be enough for each of them to get a little.” ⁸ One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to him, ⁹ “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they for so many?” ¹⁰ Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, about five thousand in number. ¹¹ Jesus then took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated. So also the fish, as much as they wanted. ¹² And when they had eaten their fill, he told his disciples, “Gather up the leftover fragments, that nothing may be lost.” ¹³ So they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves left by those who had eaten. ¹⁴ When the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, “This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world!”

¹⁵ Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself.