It's Enough...

I've been enthralled by a story in the Bible found in John 6 for the past few days. You can click here to read it. Basically, it's the story of Jesus feeding thousands of people with just a few loaves of bread and a couple pieces of fish that some boy had because his mom packed him a sack lunch. Jesus had been doing his thing - healing people, raising the dead, teaching life-changing truth - and an enormous crowd had begun to follow him. The next thing his disciples know, it's supper time and there are literally thousands of people that have wandered out of town onto the mountainside following Jesus.

The Bible says that Jesus looks at the crowd and poses this question to the disciples: "Where will we buy bread for these people to eat?" It also tells us that Jesus was just testing his disciples because he already had it all figured out. So how do the disciples respond? They've followed Jesus and seen him do absolutely incredible things. They've watched people be healed. They've watched the dead be raised. Supper should be no problem, right? Well, the disciples immediately focus on the size of the crowd. They freak out and figure that there's nothing they can do to make the situation work.

Enter the kid with the happy meal. Andrew, one of the younger disciples, notices that this kid has a couple pieces of fish and a few pieces of bread. He let's Jesus know and Jesus says "give it to me." Then Jesus does the incredible: He takes the small offering the boy had and he feeds thousands of people with it. The Bible says that every single person ate their fill and there were still leftovers. In fact, Jesus had the disciples take baskets and pick up all the leftovers for later. Maybe he thought they needed a reminder at lunch the next day about the power of the one they followed.

Here's why this has been brewing in my mind and heart lately: No matter how small or insignificant you think what you have to offer is, in the hands of Jesus it is enough. You may think that your gift or ability or talent or offering can't possibly make an impact. After all, the crowd is too big right? That's what the disciples thought. They lost sight of who they were following because they were overwhelmed by the size of what they were facing. But not the kid in the story. He gave all he had and Jesus made it into enough.

I don't know what crowd you might be facing in life right now. I don't know what problem or issue seems too overwhelming for you to conquer. But I know this: whatever God has given you - whatever talents, gifts, resources, and abilities - in the right hands, it is enough. So give it all to him and let him multiply it to the point where there are leftovers.