one boy’s lunch

The crowd drooped as the day waned, but no one wanted to leave the gathering. The sun said it was time to eat. The sound of grumbling stomachs said it was time to eat.
But the thousands who had gathered quickly that day had no food. Oh, some had grabbed a hunk of bread as they dashed out of the house that morning and nibbled on it as they listened to the itinerant teacher, but that was hours ago.
No one had expected to be gone so long, but they had been and now as the sun began its downward descent, the support team for the man began urging him, “This is a remote place, and it’s already getting late. Send the crowds away, so they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food.”
The man had a better idea. “They do not need to go away. Give them something to eat.”
You can almost hear the shock wave ripple through his crew at the idea of a spontaneous picnic for thousands of folks in a time and place with no fast food services or corner grocery stores sank.
“It would take more than half a year’s wages to buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!” they protested.
Obviously, there was no way a spontaneous meal would happen on this day in this wilderness, at least not until one of the followers, Andrew, came up and said, “Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish.” He hesitated before musing, “but how far will they go among so many?”
Anyone watching would have thought “not far enough to bother with this crowd of 5,000. Might as well give the lunch back to the boy.”
But little is much in the hands of the man of God, so He took the gift, blessed it and began using it. He broke the bread and began handing out pieces to his helpers to share with the groups of 50 and 100 men seated all around them.
Everyone had plenty of fish sandwiches that day, including the boy who had given what he had to the Master.
Here’s the thing about trusting God with what you have – you don’t know what will happen if you let go and let Him have everything.
The man of God, Jesus, did not promise anything in return for the boy’s lunch. He didn’t even say “I will make sure you get the first serving.” However, with 12 baskets of leftovers, we know that no one, including the boy, fainted from hunger on their way home that day.
Looking back, ultimately whichever way the boy dealt with his lunch, he ate.
If he had not shared his food, but had eaten it exactly as his parents intended, he would have watched others go home hungry, wistfully wishing there were some way he could help.
Handing over the basket, he recognized, “there goes my food … I’ll just have to wait until I get home to eat.”
Only after he gave did he see the crowd fed and received back more than he could eat.
Why did the child hand over his lunch when he had no guarantee he would eat that day?
Maybe there were times that day when he had watched others quietly eat any food they had brought with them without offering to share with anyone.
Maybe as one of the crowd that day, the boy had seen Jesus heal others and had heard the lessons Jesus taught about giving and treating other people the way you want to be treated.
Whatever he experienced, this was one boy who dared to offer what little he had, all of it, to the Master.
Because he gave what he had, he was taken to meet Jesus personally. And then, as his little tummy rumbled in hunger, he watched Jesus take the bread and fish and begin breaking off pieces of his lunch until it fed not just one little boy, but 5,000 men.
The boy risked going hungry, and ended up being stuffed to the brim. He literally saw “give and it shall be given you, full measure pressed down and overflowing.”
Either way, the lad got supper. One way he knew he would have supper. The other way he chose to go hungry to feed someone else, only to have Jesus turn around and provide more than enough food for everyone there.
I think the same holds true for us.
We can hold tight to what we have, go off to the side and refuse to share. or we can take a risk, choose to go without and see what happens. Sometimes the results can be miraculous.

(Joan Hershberger is a staff writer for the News-Times. E-mail her at joanh@everybody.org.)


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