"Time For Lunch!"

The miracle of the Loaves and Fish has been on my heart lately.  Here in this story, Jesus and the disciples were on their way to having a time of rest, a bit of a vacation.  But the multitudes followed them.  The Bible tells us that the day was turning to night, and that Jesus had compassion on the crowd of people, for He knew that they were hungry. As Jesus looks at the crowd, He sees an opportunity to serve them, but also our Lord takes the time to teach the disciples another lesson.....a lesson about our God's love and care of people.  Jesus could have just let the people return home for their supper.  He could have let the disciples have a bit of a rest; in fact,wasn't that was what was supposed to be happening?  But our Lord never passes up on an opportunity to love on people. And, He wants us to do the same. 
As Jesus asks the disciples to "feed the crowd" the disciples are taken aback by this request. And I can understand why!!  I can almost see their faces.  Their mouths' drop open, eyes widen, and then the spoken words of, "Where are we going to get that much food?"  Jesus asks, "How much food do you have?"  "Only this boys' lunch," they answer back.  So Jesus tells the disciples to tell the crowd to sit down!  What??  Just, "Sit down?"  No, "Tell them to go home," or "Tell them to go and get themselves some dinner and come back tomorrow?"  Nope, just sit down.  Then Jesus takes the few loaves and the fish and makes into them.....a great feast!  There was enough for all!  And not only that, there were 12 baskets of leftovers too! 
The Lord was showing that He had power over creation, but I believe more importantly, He was showing the disciples (and me) that He will give to me all that I need so that I may give to others!!  There will be no lack!  We have heard it said, "Where God guides, He provides," and this story proves that fact.
God wants it ALL.......everything!!  There can be no holding back. When He calls, there can be no, "But I need my rest," or "I need time to myself."  Now rest and relaxing aren't bad or wrong.  But, I need to be willing to give of these to my Jesus when He asks for them!! What if the young boy had wanted to keep his little lunch to himself?  He could have, for it belonged to him. I too, can keep my "little bit," but that is all I will have, a "little bit." 
Jesus asks us to bring what we have.....and to bring all that we have.  It may be a lot or it may be a little. The choice is ours.  I can keep my "meager loaves and fish," and feed myself.....and maybe a few others.  Or I can give my "little lunch" to the Lord and let Him bless it, break it, and feed many.....myself included!!

 

The young lions lack and suffer hunger; But those who seek the Lord shall not lack any good thing.  Psalm 34:10

Unless the Lord.......

A while back, one of my grand kids asked me if I had a photo of the house that I grew up in. At that time, I didn't.  I don't know why I never took a photo of it.  I guess I always thought that I would go back home, and see it with my own eyes.  Recently a friend from home was able to take a few snapshots of my childhood house for me.  Now I have something to show my grand children.  The house doesn't look as it did when I was a child, in fact it looks quite sad and run down. While I was growing up, my dad was good at keeping up with home repairs.  He made sure that the paint was freshened every five years or so.  He made sure that the trees were trimmed, and that the fence did what a fence should do.....keep the kids in the yard and keep strangers out.
As I was looking at the photos it struck me that everything in life can fall to disrepair if we are not constantly maintaining it.  And this holds true with my life......with all areas of my life.  My marriage, my friendships, my work, my physical health, and the most important, my relationship with God.  As I looked at that run down house and yard, I was reminded again of how easy it is to let "things go." I get so busy with life, with doing my own thing, that I forget to maintain those things that are so very important.  If I leave a hole in the roof of my house, then the roof will leak and after a while, it will fall down.  If I don't sand and repaint the peeling paint around my home's window frames then moisture and bugs can get into the wood, and they will rot away to nothing.  If we don't expend the effort to trim our trees, and mow our yard.....well, you get the point.  The same holds true for my spiritual life and for my relationships.  I need to expend the energy, and take the time, to maintain them!  This means that I need to be aware of "peeling paint and rotten roofs."  I need to be asking the Lord if all is well with us, if all is well with my marriage and with my other relationships. I have learned that it takes more work to rebuild, than to repair and maintain.  So, I am asking for Him to show me the "leaks and the peeling paint," so that I can be a good steward of the good things that He has entrusted to me.
"Unless the Lord builds the house, it's builders labor in vain....."
Psalm 127:1