By Bev Bentley Wilson
Most of us have heard the Bible story about Jesus feeding a large crowd of people with only five loaves of bread and two fish.
I can still see in my mind the picture I saw as a child in Sunday School that illustrated the story… The crowd is sitting on the grass and Jesus is standing at the front of them while his disciples are walking among them, passing out bread and fish. I never bothered to count all the people in the drawing, but through a child’s eyes, it looked like a lot!
Now, recalling the illustration, I still can’t manage to count the people in the crowd, but I do know that the illustrator fell far short of the true number. The true number could not have been drawn in a single illustration. “About five thousand men had eaten from those five loaves, in addition to all the women and children!” (Matthew 14:21)
Five thousand men! To put that in a little clearer perspective, the city of Hazard, Kentucky, has a population of 4,456 people. For those of you who have been there, it’s a fairly decent size town. For those of you who have been to Walmart there, it seems that all 4,456 of them are in the store at any given time. How far would five loaves of bread and two small fish go if you just tried to feed the people who were waiting to check out?
Now, go back and reread the verse from Matthew… In addition to five thousand men there were also women and children! If only half of the men were married, and had one child, this would mean that the crowd was ten thousand, and that is probably a conservative estimate.
To have that many people in one place, you would have to gather up everyone in Hazard, Hindman, Whitesburg, Hyden, and Prestonsburg. All of them – everybody!!!
The miracle Jesus performed is even bigger than that! The people didn’t just get a crumb of bread and a taste of fish — “They all ate as much as they wanted, and they picked up twelve baskets of left-overs.” (verse 20)
There were left-overs! Twelve baskets of food had not been consumed! Consider the enormity of the miracle Jesus performed… Probably more than ten thousand hungry people with only five loaves of bread and two fish available to feed all of them. They were all fed as much as they wanted, and there were still twelve baskets of food left over.
This is what our Lord and Savior is capable of doing. He isn’t limited in any way — not by numbers nor by the severity of problems. With him, nothing, absolutely nothing, is impossible. Jesus performed many miracles, even raising people from the dead, but the miracle he performed with merely five loaves of bread and two fish, perfectly illustrates that no problem is too large for him. And, just as he cared enough to feed a vast multitude of hungry people, he cares for our every need.
When you are in need of a miracle, just bow your head and ask for one. Your prayers do get through, and you must believe that. Jesus has never stopped performing miracles for his followers… ever.
If you have insurmountable problems, talk to our Lord. If you are at the end of your rope with no hope in sight, pray. Pray with faith that Jesus is still a miracle worker. You may just see him perform a miracle in your own life.
Love and blessings to you all.
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