Next week in our chapel services, I will be sharing from Mark chapter 6.  This passage records for us how Jesus miraculously fed 5,000 by multiplying five loaves and two fish.  Jesus had been teaching and preaching all day to a large crowd.  When supper time rolled around the disciples asked the Lord to send the crow away into the nearby towns so that the crowd could get something to eat.  How surprised they must have been when Christ told His disciples that they should feed the crowd.  The disciples replied to His command, “We don’t have hardly anything to give them and we certainly can’t afford to buy enough sandwiches for a crowd this big!”  Christ urged His followers to see what resources they did have and to bring those resources to Him.  When the disciples brought forward five loaves and two fish, Christ took these meager resources, blessed them and miraculously used them to feed everyone – with 12 baskets of leftovers remaining after everyone had eaten!

I love this passage of scripture and the lessons it provides.  I love how it demonstrates to us the care and compassion of our Lord as well as His power and His provision  to meet our needs.   Just as He did with those first disciples, Christ also instructs us to be involved in meeting the needs of others.  He invites us to do hard things, impossible things – things we cannot ever do on our own.  But if we give ourselves to Him, if we place our meager resources into His hands, He will bless all that we bring to Him and miraculously use it bless others.