What is your 5 + 2?

⚔️Let’s dig in to what God’s Word says. Today we are reading John 6:1-15.

If you have grown up going to church, you have heard, read, and probably taught that lesson over and over again. But have you ever thought about how that might connect to your life right now? As an adult? As a Mom? As an employee?

The passage starts off with Jesus teaching near the Sea of Galilee and a large crowd was following Him. He went up to the mountain and the crowd was pressing in around Him. His disciples, always practical…recognize that they are getting hungry and start wondering how in the world they were going to feed all of the people that had been following Jesus. This just reminds me again that the disciples were mostly young! They were teenagers - and teenagers get hungry - you know what I mean!

Philip is figuring out that they do not have nearly enough money to buy even a little bit for each person. But Jesus does. Think about that, even as Philip is asking, can you just imagine that maybe Jesus is chuckling to himself. Maybe he is thinking,

“Don’t worry, I got you”

“Wait until you see what I GET to do!”

“I’m about to blow your socks off!”

I like to think that Jesus had a sense of humor and that internal voice was giggling in delight and anticipation of what was coming next. Can you imagine that is how Jesus might be looking at you? He is giggling…knowing there is something coming that will blow your socks off. Or maybe he is thinking, just wait, don’t worry, I got you, I have something amazing planned for you!

So back to our passage. Andrew finds a boy who has 5 barley loaves and 2 fish. What in the world can Jesus do with that? Maybe he is thinking of a small plate restaurant - but THAT would be a small crumbs restaurant!

He has the people sit down, even as He is getting ready to do a miracle, Jesus is the God of order, not chaos. And then, He took the loaves.

AND WHEN HE HAD GIVEN THANKS, he started to distribute what He had. At the end of verse 11, is the phrase “as much as they wanted”. John just slips that in there, like “add milk to the store list”. What - back that bus up!!!!! 5,000 people just ate all that they wanted. The Bible says, “when they had eaten their fill.” As simple as that, no big production, just Jesus meeting the needs of the people around him.

When I really sit and think about this passage, I can relate to the disciples. They looked around and saw that they had so little, hardly anything at all. BUT, and here is the important part…

They offered what they had.

Maybe you feel like me, maybe you feel like you have so little to offer. So little influence, so little money, so little time, so little.

I am not a great accomplished writer.

I have not won awards for being the best preschool teacher.

I am not a fabulous sought after speaker.

Or the most successful Norwex consultant in the company.

Or the best mom in the whole world, although I do make my kids say that to me, especially when I do something for them 🙂

BUT…

You and I need to remember that even though we feel like we have nothing to give, and so little to offer. We serve a God who has limitless resources - and He wants to work in and through us! Little old me! He wants to work through me?

That gap between what I don’t know and what God does know. Or, the gap between my imperfectness and His perfect will and plan. He will fill that gap.

When God fills that gap, He is seen, not me. When the amazing power of God is revealed, not because I have all of the amazing skills, but because I have just a little, just a few fish and a few loaves of bread THEN

Here it is….lean in…LISTEN

When I am willing to open my hands and heart and to allow God to use what I DO have, maybe that is when the miracles happen. One of the songs I am listening to a lot right now is Gratitude by I Am They

So maybe, think about this, maybe God allows me to feel

“Less than”

“Imperfect”

“Insignificant”

SO THAT

He can do something amazing with my five loaves and two fish. Maybe I am the one person in that sea of 5.000 whose Mom packed a cooler, who was given those 5 loaves and 2 fish. Maybe that is all I have to offer…

BUT

When I offer what little I have,

LOOK WHAT HE DOES!

Verse 12 says then they had eaten their fill. So when everyone, all 5,000 people had eaten all that they wanted, there were leftovers, not just a small crumb plate, but 12 baskets full! A smorgasbord of leftovers! When I open up and am willing to give what I have, God steps in, God creates abundance and all I have to do is to open my hands, not keep what I do have to myself, but open my hands to what He wants to do. Then, I can sit back, relax, and watch God work.

What are your 5 loaves and 2 fish? What do you have to offer? What, in your mind, insignificant thing can you offer?

Maybe you are like that Mom, we don’t know this because Scripture doesn’t tell us, but I am thinking that a Mom packed that little boy’s lunch. She was doing something seemingly mundane and insignificant, just packing lunch.

I have packed a ton of lunches! On my lunch packing bin, in Sharpie marker, I wrote this verse:

Colossians 3:23

“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart,

as working for the Lord, not for human masters,”

It was just a great reminder that even though it was a mundane task, not one that I really hated, but I just had to do it everyday, that I should complete that task as unto the Lord.

Look what God did, a Mom packing a small lunch with what she had.

And, she ended up offering her little to the BIG God that we serve, and he chose to feed 5.000 people with her lunch! Can you imagine the conversation when her son came home? MOM - you will never believe it, but that lunch that you packed (and I complained about carrying along because I didn’t want to be bothered - yes I have boys…I know how they think!) that lunch fed 5.000 people!!!! It was amazing! You are the best mom in the whole world (ok, maybe he didn’t say that, but he should have!)