[When his disciples wondered how to feed the huge crowd who had been with them several days and were famished, Jesus] replied, “You give them something to eat.” They answered, “We have only five loaves of bread and two fish — unless we go and buy food for all this crowd.” —Luke 9:13.
I love the way Jesus got his disciples’ attention in this situation. He challenged them “to do immeasurably more than all [they] ask or imagine” (Ephesians 3:20-21). Basically, Jesus told them, “You feed them, boys!” Of course, they knew that they couldn’t! Yet Jesus showed them they could do amazing things if they brought their meager resources to him. When the big picnic was over, each of those limited disciples got to pick up a basket full of leftovers from the table of Jesus’ grace (Luke 9:17). Let’s remember our challenge is the limited resources we see but our unwillingness to bring what we have to Jesus and trust that he will do something with us, and those resources, to bless others in ways we couldn’t have dreamed!