What? No Tartar Sauce. . .

I've been reflecting a lot over the last couple of days on one of Jesus' most amazing miracles. I'm honestly just amazed at it and the magnitude of it is hard for me to get my mind around. There's so many unique angles about this story and then with the way my mind works, I've been looking at all the subplots within the story itself. Have you ever stopped to really think about all the people that were in the crowd that day? I mean there was 5,000 men, plus women and children. There's a lot of folks to consider, to keep track of and to think about. So I've thought a lot about them. And I came up with a few additional questions I'd like to ask. For instance:

• With 5,000 men, plus women and children, how did the disciples find the one boy with enough foresight to pack a lunch?
• Out of 5,000 men, plus women and children, you can't possibly tell me that only one boy had some food? Somebody was holding out. There was at least a chicken nugget happy meal somewhere in the crowd.
• 5,000 men, plus women and children - there had to be at least one wife who said, "We should have stopped at the last exit and got some food."
• When the disciples wanted to send the 5,000 men, plus women and children away so they could get their own food, where were they going to send them all? Golden Corral?
• If this miracle had happened today, with 5,000 men, plus women and children, there would have been at least one ungrateful, miserable wretch of a hungry person who said, "What? You give me a fish sandwich and no tartar sauce?"

Seriously though - this story has always fascinated me for so many reasons. And it speaks to me, no matter how many times I've read it. Imagine sitting on the ground with 5,000 of your closest buddies, plus their wives and kids and watching Jesus pull off piece after piece of bread and piece after piece of fish and it never running out. Imagine eating all you could handle, everybody around you doing the same, and then the disciples come around for the leftovers and what was once 2 fish and 5 loaves of bread is now 12 baskets of remnants. Imagine how amazed that kid must have been - to have seen this small lunch feed so many. Could he have ever questioned the power of God again? I think not. . .

Isn't Jesus truly amazing? He specializes in taking little and creating much. I am confident that when I am fresh out of resources, tapped out of finances, completely void of supply, that is when Jesus is finally freed up to do His best work. He doesn't need much to make a lot. It is when I have little that He opens His greatest opportunities. I'm so thankful that when we are in lack, He is full of supply and when trusted in and called upon, He never wonders where the answer will come from. No - He simply takes what little we've brought - blesses it and begins to break it - and as He does, it begins to multiply in His hands.

I really think that there is something about the "breaking." I have found that I rarely see God using my life to be multiplied and a blessing to others as long as I'm not broken. "A broken and a contrite spirit, Oh God you will not despise. . ." When we are broken in the hands of God, He then is able to multiply us, make us usable and give us the opportunity to feed the hungry that are around us everyday. Proud people don't give up their lunch. Prideful people don't share with others - they hoard it all for themselves. It is the humble and the broken that's willing to be a blessing because they know what it's like to need to be fixed. That young boy knew what it was like to go out and be hungry so he'd packed a lunch. And when Jesus asked it for, he gladly turned over to the hands of the master.

I'm also amazed at the leftovers. Where there was once lack, there's abundant supply. Not just enough - not barely enough to feed everybody, but rather enough to have sandwiches tomorrow. I love Thanksgiving. I love the turkey, the mashed potatoes, the gravy, all the trimmings, the vegetables cooked just right, the desserts galore. I love it all. But do you know what my favorite part is? Believe it or not, it's typically about 7 pm on Thanksgiving night as the late football game is about to be completed, when I go to the fridge and I find the platter of leftover turkey meat and I pull out the mayo and the black pepper and the bread and I make myself my leftover turkey sandwich. I don't know why I like it so much. I don't know why it's so appealing to me. But for some reason, I love eating my leftover sandwich. It reminds me of how good the day has been, the joy of sitting around the table just a few hours earlier. All the wonderful flavors of Thanksgiving are wrapped up in my sandwich made from leftovers. Now imagine, when they cracked open those baskets, later that day - there was 12 of them, 1 for each disciple - as each disciple pulled out his bread and his fish fragments, can you imagine how much they thought about what Jesus had done. Can you imagine the stories? "Man, I saw Jesus pull off a hunk of bread and it immediately grew back." "Dude, one time I saw him tear the tail off the fish, and it immediately came back - how does that happen?" I don't know what they said, but what a cool reminder of the miraculous power of provision that was in the hands of the Master. I'm not sure what they said - I'm not sure what they thought - but after seeing such a great and amazing miracle - I'm confident that there was enough faith in the crowd to ask for tartar sauce and expect it to show up.

Until next time - God bless - love you all and I'm believing God with you for the blessing, the breaking and the fish sandwich multiplication in my life and yours - RP