Friday Meditations- Nobody goes hungry in the Kingdom

Five thousand men, not counting women and children, were gathered around Him. They had come from far and near for various reasons; some because of the many signs and wonders they had seen him perform, others brought their sick to be healed. Some others were just curious about the man and the Kingdom he talked about all of the time, the Kingdom of God.

But this story is not about the many reasons why people sought to see or hear Him.

This story is about something more basic, food.

So anyhow, these thousands of men and women were hungry. Jesus could have continued talking and healing but he knew that nothing would penetrate the cloud of hunger that was beginning to overshadow their hearts and minds. He also knew that at that point, food was more important than malaria to many people.

So, being an all round great guy who had promised to supply needs and also knew how hunger pangs felt (because he had been hungry a number of times), he decided to do something about it.

Being a leader and a teacher also, he knew an opportunity when he saw one; an opportunity to teach his disciples.

So he called one of his disciples (The conversation below is paraphrased):

"What can we do about this?" Jesus asked.

"That's a tough question Sir. You see my uncle Jeb just had a party for 1000 people and he killed a cow, cooked many bags of rice and semovita, and spent a lot of money on drinks and small chops. For this number, we would need more than that. I have seen the bag of money that Judas holds, and trust me, it don't look like it weigh enough to feed this number. Send them home Sir." The disciple said, astonished that Jesus would suggest the something/anything could be done.

And Jesus was like "Ehm what were we talking about again?"

"The kingdom of God, Sir", the disciple replied.

"Well nobody goes hungry in the Kingdom of God. So tell me, what do we have, food not money?"

"Five loaves of bread Sir and a few fish...", the disciple answered.

"It is more than enough."Jesus said.

Okay let’s backtrack a bit; I can finish five loaves of bread and a few fish. I mean me... just me alone...

At this point, all twelve disciples were looking at Jesus like seriously?

So Jesus took the bread and fish, blessed them, and gave to his disciples to share among the crowd.

All the people (I mean the thousands of men, women, and children) ate and were filled leaving twelve baskets of surplus food.

And I imagine Jesus was like, “what did I tell you? no one goes hungry in the Kingdom of God. You are more important than the birds of the air and the lilies in the field and your heavenly father takes care of them. So don’t worry about tomorrow; what to eat or wear. Just abide in me. You see, you are my body and I will always cherish and nourish you. Do you believe this?”