One time a long time ago, I got up the gusto to make my folks an omelet. I figured I knew how since I’ve been watching my Mom making them for as long as I could remember. I set in on cracking some eggs in a bowl and discovered that my mother has been performing minor miracles my entire life. I could not properly crack the egg. I accidentally did things to those eggs that words would struggle to adequately describe. I did my best to fish the bigger shards of shell out and presented the sad fruit of a few hours of labor to my poor folks for dinner. They generously thanked me for my hard work and eventually put together a backup dinner, only properly prepared this time. In some ways, the hungry crowd in John 6 was like me, unable to provide a sufficiently decent meal for themselves at that moment.
Jesus took what was available, as meager as it was, and multiplied it until people were satisfied. I’m guessing each fish was unique, somehow pre-cooked to perfection, and ready to go. He did so in a timely manner too, the people were hungry, it was already very late in the day and he had to feed more than 5 thousand people before dark. No physical law of matter was going to hinder him. Jesus’ compassion casually breaks any law that would get in his way, man-made or otherwise.
Let’s make sure we are among those who follow Jesus, let’s make sure we are in that crowd. Jesus is very faithful and dependable to provide for our practical needs. We tend to veer towards self-reliance much like I wanted to make a gourmet dinner. Why would I ever choose my crunchy omelet over the abundant feast Jesus has for us?
Jonathan Duncan