Feeding the 5000

There were over five thousand there that day, And every one of them tired and hungry.

‘Feed them’, he said,

As if manna would fall from the sky

As it had done in the desert.

Even if we had had the money,

We could not have found enough bread in that remote place                                          

To feed so many.

Then a boy came up to me;

‘You can have my lunch, if it helps’, he said.

I looked and there in his basket

Were five barley loaves and two small fish.

I couldn’t hurt him by refusing his gift but how far would it go                                

Among so many?

But we had learned never to say ‘Impossible’ when we were with Jesus.                  

So I took the boy and his gift over to the Teacher.

He looked with such love at the boy
As he took the small basket.
He blessed the food, thanked his Father for the provision                                     

And began handing it to us to give to the crowd,

Seated now around the mountainside.

And, believe it or not,

I saw it with my own eyes,

Those five loaves and two small fish

Fed the whole crowd with twelve baskets of scraps

Left over.

That gift, freely given by a loving heart, was taken by God      

And made more than sufficient for the need.