It was a school day and he didn’t much look forward to going. After all when you’re a young boy there are a lot more things in life that are much more interesting than spending the day listening to boring teachers and the endless hours of lessons. So when he noticed the commotion outside his house he was ready to take full advantage of the opportunity to see what was going on and skip his studies.
He grabbed the lunch his mother had prepared for him and bolted outside where the crowd had been gathering. He couldn’t see much if anything and was jostled this way and that as he followed the crowd much like a fish makes its way up through the waters.
Surely he thought he’d get a glimpse of what was going on but the crowd just kept moving and he just followed along. Every now and then he’d jump up to see ahead but the crowd had grown and he could only see the mass of people moving swiftly down the street. “There must be a thousand people here”, he thought to himself as he tried to work himself in to see what was going on.
Then as suddenly as the crowd had started it stopped. A murmured silence moved over the crowd then he heard a voice talking to them. “You, this group, you sit over here.” It was only when they all sat down that he could see that there weren’t a thousand but many times that many.
As he sat down, lunch in hand a shadow passed over him. He looked up and there hovering over him was a man he had never seen before. The ominous figure looked down at him then reached out his hand and took him by the arm and grabbed his lunch in the other. “Come with me boy”, he said and pulled the young man behind him.
Was he in trouble for skipping school? Was he not supposed to be eating here? Was he not supposed to be in this crowd? All sorts of things ran through his mind as they weaved in and out of the massive group of people. He could hear murmurs as he went by several and knew the men must be talking about him. There were babies crying but also laughter here and there. For the most part people were just sitting quietly with little conversation.
Finally, as they reached the front of the crowd, the man who had been holding his arm all the way, gently pulled him in front of him and said, “Here is a lad with five loaves and two fish”. As he said this the man he had spoken to turned and looked down at him and smiled. “But what are these among so many?” the man with the boy added. The man who had looked and smiled placed his hand upon the boys head stroking his hair and with his other hand took the lunch that had been brought forward.
It was on that day that a young lad whose name we will never know, helped Jesus feed over five thousand people. He brought the lunch and Jesus brought the miracle.
It’s unfortunate that a lot of people think that it’s the most powerful speaker or the more famous individual that makes the biggest difference in what happens. The Bible shows us the fallacy of this type thinking. The Israelites were afraid of Goliath because of his size. The Israelites chose Saul as their king because he looked like a king. One of the reasons Jesus was rejected was because he didn’t look the part. But look at who God chooses to do great works. Moses was a shepherd who tried to convince God he was a nobody and not send him. Jonah ran away from God because he didn’t like what he wanted him to do. Jesus chose fishermen, tax collectors, assassins and little know men to be his apostles. A woman named Rahab was blessed for her act of saving the Israelite spies. Timothy was a young man when he started his ministry. Paul was a persecutor of Christians.
God chooses the most unlikely people to do his works. Why is that? It’s basically because the power is not in the individual but in what God can do with what we bring to Him. Whether it’s a lunch basket with five loaves and two fish or just a couple of empty hands, with God miracles can occur.
Next time you feel you’re not worthy to do something for God stop and remember this young man with no name; This young man who was a major part of one of the greatest miracles that Jesus ever performed.
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