Loaves and Fishes.
John 6:9 "Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?"
It's obvious that Andrew was looking at what he had to offer (a little boy's measly lunch) and doubted that it would come close to achieving his goal of feeding 5,000 men plus all the additional women and children. I chuckle when I think that not only did this measly meal feed all of these people, with twelve full baskets left over, but Andrew's story has been told for centuries! When he questioned "How far will they go?" Andrew probably didn't include two thousand years of retelling and teaching in answers he was expecting.
And yet, by Jesus's hand and the Father's blessing, it's incomprehensible how far those five loaves and two fishes have gone.
Now I'm aware that the grammatically correct way to say it is loaves and fish. But what has made this story so relevant in my life this month is the fact that my language acquistion keeps me in a place of making frequent mistakes when speaking or relating with people.
Two weeks ago, I celebrated my first year of living in Central Asia, and the next day, I gave a training to our local partners. It felt like a very fun marker of accomplishment and celebration and excitment to be finally working here! Until the training went so poorly. My dear local partners couldn't understand what I had written in my presentation and frankly I couldn't remember what some of the words I had translated were in English, so when my team leader stepped in to help by asking what are you trying to say in English, I couldn't even answer that well.
I felt pretty discouraged. I was sharing this with a friend who knows what it's like to give trainings in a second language, and she reminded me of the loaves and fishes. Andrew had good reason to imagine that this small amount of food wouldn't feed so many people, but he forgot to include Jesus his imaginings. It's clear to me that my small amount of skills and language ability aren't going to impact many unless Jesus blesses the heck out of what little I bring. But that's the thing: Jesus is in the business of blessing the heck out of things--especially the little things we bring. When He asks us what we have to offer in order to address something, and we step out in faith, bringing our small loaves and fishes, knowing that without Him it's not gonna happen, I just know that He is there ready to fill baskets upon baskets with leftovers.
I've been greatly encouraged by remembering that God doesn't actually call us to be the ones to feed the 5,000 or to give the best trainings, or to solve all the worlds problems, but He does call us to trust Him. To trust that when we bring our loaves and fishes--our skills, talents, resources, giftings, positions, whatever it may be--that He can make it more than enough.
What is He asking you to bring? Do you trust that He can make it more than enough?
Blessings,
Evelyn