Giving So That Others Can Experience Giving
August 2, 2020
The miracle is not just about loaves and fish. The miracle is not just about the desire of the crowd to follow and listen to Jesus. This miracle is not just about showing the power and magnitude of God like all miracles. This miracle is about the desire of Jesus to have the disciples become participants in the feeding of the crowd. The miracle is about Jesus overcoming the obstacle that the disciples put up because of the way they see the situation. It is evening. They are tired, they are in a deserted place and they cannot see how this will end. Jesus overcomes their lack of vision. He invited them to give the crowd food themselves. They analyze what they have, five loaves and two fish. He then takes them, blesses them and offers them to the disciples to share with the crowd. In that moment the miracle begins. He offers them, with His involvement, the blessing of what they have and then sends them forth to give what they have. He gives them the opportunity to be participants in the miracle, not just receivers of it. He gives them, with His involvement, the experience of taking what they have and offering it to others. What a gift. By giving them what they have back to them to give to others, He allowed them to know what they had was sacred and good and could make incredible things happen.
It is a true treasure in our lives to realize God works through us. It was true back in biblical times as it is today. The Lord longs for us to look at what we have, and realizing it can never be enough, He can make it more. The miracle begins when we offer the Lord what we have to make it more for us and for others. It is never made more so we ourselves would have more, but it is made more so that others can have enough. In this lies the mission of who we are as a people of God. Abundance will happen and abundance can happen when we offer the Lord what we have and allow Him to make it more. The multiplication of loaves and fishes was also an expansion of the vision of the disciples who began giving from what they had, not worrying if it was enough. That freedom came from a trust that they themselves would not go hungry.
The Lord longs to bless our lives so we can be participants in His ministry. The Lord longs to bless the love we have for others to make it more; the Lord longs to bless the forgiveness we have to share with others and make it more. The first step is to offer it to Him with no strings attached, and let Him show us the way. He gave so that we can give.
Father John J. Ouper