Daily Lesson for June 7, 2018

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Matthew chapter 14 verses 13 through 21:

13 Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a deserted place by himself. But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns. 14When he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them and cured their sick. 15When it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, ‘This is a deserted place, and the hour is now late; send the crowds away so that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves.’ 16Jesus said to them, ‘They need not go away; you give them something to eat.’ 17They replied, ‘We have nothing here but five loaves and two fish.’ 18And he said, ‘Bring them here to me.’19Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. 20And all ate and were filled; and they took up what was left over of the broken pieces, twelve baskets full. 21And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children.

We never see the miracle so long as the loaves remain in our own hands. 

So long as we are clutching and clinging and hoarding and living in fear of scarcity then all that we know will tell us there is not enough to go around. The mentality of scarcity will keep us convinced that in this world there are too little resources and too great a need. And that will be absolutely true so long as we refuse to open our hands and share.

And what we miss out on is the incredible abundance of God, who alone made something from absolutely nothing, and with us can make much from very little. 

St. Augustine once said that in God’s economy there is always enough of that which is meant to be shared. That kind of thinking has the power to change everything.

But before it can change everything, it first has to change something. 

May it change something for us today.