Miraculous Feeding

Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves.  Then he gave them to his disciples to set before the people.  He also divided the two fish among them all.  Mark 6:41 (TNIV)

Wow, just unbelievable!  Can we possibly imagine what it would have been like to witness such a sight?  Jesus, before our very eyes taking a substance which we all recognize and know, He blesses it looking up to God on high, then starts breaking it into pieces.  Somehow though, right there within our sight, what He is handing out to be passed around does not run out.  Jesus parts baskets full of bread and fish and thousands of people eat until they are satisfied.

It is difficult for us to perceive something like this actually happening.  We simply have been instructed so fully on the physical impossibilities that to actually think something like this could happen right now where we could all see it, is just out of the question.  And we are probably right.  This would not be because there were things that God cannot do, but because we are so hardened against seeing the impossible, that any miraculous sign would be wasted on our hearts of stone.

We say, “If we could first see a great sign, then we will believe that God is still at work and that miracles are still possible.”  Unfortunately this is the sad state of our over-instructed mentality.  Somewhere in our pasts, we have all had the mystery of God taught right out of our reach.  So much science, study, physics and chemistry are mixed with a tendency to depend on all the known qualities.  Any person today, who actually looks for magical and unexplained results, would for sure be labeled as ignorant or not healthy in the head.

So for us who call ourselves Christians and lift up our occasional prayers and songs, are we seeing the hand of God at work?  Is there a sense of expectancy when we look to Jesus today?  In that moment we steal to shoot up a quick prayer, is there any genuine room left for the working out of faith?  Do we just throw our petition out to God, just in case there is something He would or could do with it?

For those who witnessed the fantastic miracles Jesus performed, there might have been some who had a hard time believing what they saw.  But at least they had actually gone out of their way to see Him.  People need to go to where He is.  We need to get into His presence if we would see mighty things.  Our Lord is still in control and still has power we cannot fathom.

Yet there may still be a few, who would throw off what others would think of them.  They would rather be called simple-minded or crazy.  But they would quietly know that their God can and does work in whatever way He sees fit.  These precious fools will secretly be burning within and straining to see with their own eyes these wonderful and mysterious expressions of the hand of God.  These God-minded individuals may have to wait to witness great things, but their waiting does not damage their faith.  Their God is big enough and mighty enough and when He does move, wonderful things happen.

Dear Lord, please do not let our unbelieving minds remove from us the possibility of seeing Your hand at work in and around us.  Help us to be the kind of people who draw closer to You so that the wonder of You may work in mighty ways.  If we must wait to see a miraculous expression of Your hand, then let us do so with anticipation.  Breathlessly we wait to see You break through the barrier of our reality, draw back the curtain that divides Your kingdom and ours.  Come, oh Mighty One, Come!

Amen