Much from little

There is nothing on TV. Just in case you're looking. There are tons of television shows on lots of different channels, but none of them, just right now, are appealing to me.

In such cases, Steve will "flip channels." That's what we call it. It's just cruising through the channels, one after the other. Just now, he stopped for a moment on a Beth Moore program. She was talking about the Feeding of the 5000, and she said something very intersting that I had never noticed before.

Read this:

Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, spoke up, "Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?" Jesus said, "Have the people sit down." There was plenty of grass in that place, and the men sat down, about five thousand of them. Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted. He did the same with the fish. When they had all had enough to eat, he said to his disciples, "Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted." So they gathered them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten. (John 6:10-13)

I never noticed before that there were 12 baskets left. Twelve baskets and twelve disciples. I've considered before that Jesus had the disciples collect the leftovers to prove to them a point about abundance, trust and faith, but in this television program that Steve came across, Beth Moore said that there was another messages in this for the disciples (and for us).

Whatever we give to God -- no matter how small we think it is, or how inadequate, he will take it and use it, miraculously, to feed the multitude. He wants us to understand that and to believe it. To act on it. To trust him enough with what we have that we will expect him to use it for his purposes, to build the kingdom.

Sometimes he gives us the graceful gift of seeing the miraculous results.