How Much Is Too Little

Over the years, I've received several gifts from church members.  Some were for Christmas and some were ... well ... just because.  Last month I received a book from a couple in our church.  The title is "Breakfast with Jesus" by Greg Laurie.  It is filled with short devotionals, each based on one or two verses from the gospels.  The chapters are short, designed to do just what the title suggests: get your day started with the Savior.

Today I read what Mr. Laurie had to say about Luke 9:16-17. It's the story of Jesus asking His disciples to feed over 5000 hungry people. So often we focus on the boy and his lunch with this story. This time the focus was on the disciples.  Luke's account doesn't mention the boy at all.  When His twelve asked Jesus to send the crowd away to eat, Jesus replied, "You give them something to eat." (v. 13)

Somewhere along the way, the guys had missed an important point.  They had seen Jesus give life back to a dead girl and give sight to a blind man.  They had even seen Him give good wine to a wedding party (so they knew that not all His miracles had to do with people and their health!)  Jesus had a history of being able to do exactly what needed to be done, and yet they didn't ask Him to do anything other than send the people away.

Then Jesus did what He is still doing:  He asked His guys to give Him "what they had, regardless of how little it seemed." (BwJ, pg.37) I've never looked at this story quite from that point of view before.  Jesus doesn't want something from me that I don't have.  He just wants what I do have... right now, on hand... and He'll make something miraculous from that.