Hungry?
Many of us will be feasting this Christmas, eating multiple dishes prepared by many hands over many days.
It’s hard for those of us who have never really gone hungry to fully understand the magnitude of the miracle of Jesus feeding the 5,000+ people who chose to listen to His word while their stomachs grumbled.
The crowd who travelled to hear Jesus speak were not used to eating three meals a day. They were also not used to eating until they were full. They ate enough to sustain life, but there was never enough.
But Jesus took a little boy’s offering – 5 loaves and 2 fish – gave thanks for it and distributed them among his disciples, who passed them out to thousands of stunned witnesses.
Mark 6:42,43 says:
They all ate and were satisfied, 43 and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces of bread and fish.
Satisfied – filled – amazed.
When’s the last time you felt like that?
When you claimed Jesus’ promise that those who hunger and thirst for righteousness will be filled (same Greek word, Matthew 5:6)?
When you felt content and fulfilled, at peace and overflowing?
It feels impossible sometimes, to give from emptiness. It feels ridiculous to believe that a small offering can become a miracle.
Yet the story is recorded in all 4 gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) to remind us that in our scarcity, He provides. In our insignificance, He fills. In our brokenness, He multiplies.
For He is the Bread of Life, given for us because we cannot give. He is the Light of the World, shining for us in our darkness. He is Immanuel, “God with us,” when we feel so very alone.
So this Christmas season, wherever you are, may you eat until you’re satisfied – may you feel blessed and refreshed by the One who leads us not only through the valley of the shadow of death but also to the table:
You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
6 Surely your goodness and love will follow me
all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord
forever.Psalm 23:5,6.
May you be filled with faith, hope and love.
Father God, we feel so empty this year. But You are a God who can do so much with so little, so have mercy on us and take what we surrender to You now – our tired hearts, our deflated hopes, our limited vision. And teach us to give thanks, as You do, over the small things, in faith that in Your hands, they become miracles. Amen.
by: Jinha Kim
"But those who drink the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life." John 4:14