Limited

Matthew 14:13-21

I am limited. The friends I wish I can help; I cannot help. The situations I wish I could change; I cannot change. The "help" I do give really isn't help at all; it's just presence. It's just letting the people in my life know that I'm in this life with them. And even this kind of "help" is limited by constraints of time and energy and attention.

So maybe this is why I find Jesus feeding the five thousand so comforting. Jesus had withdrawn to a solitary place, but the crowds had followed him. He saw that their needs were great, and he had great compassion on them. He worked with them until evening and then the disciples suggested that Jesus send them home so that they could eat. But Jesus had another plan. He said, "You give them something to eat" (Matthew 14:16).

Talk about limitations. Do you see those people? 5,000 men plus numerous uncounted women and children? Do you see them? Feed them. The disciples responded to Jesus request for them to feed the crowd with, "We have here only five loaves of bread and two fish" (Matthew 14:17). Jesus asked the disciples to give him what they had. Jesus then blessed the little meal and turned it into a feast for the whole crowd.

I take comfort in this story. I have so little bread so to speak. There's not much I can do in any of the situations around me that concern me, but I do give the little that I have to Jesus and ask him to multiply it. He's the one that can feed the crowd. He's the one who can work a miracle of taking my ordinary life and turning it into something to glorify his Father.