“Jesus replied, ‘They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.’ ‘We have here only five loaves of bread and two fish,’ they answered. ‘Bring them here to me,’ he said” (Matthew 14:16-18).
This miracle is the only one mentioned in all four Gospels. It is that important. There were five thousand men plus women and children who were listening to Jesus when they became hungry. Feeding a crowd of thousands would have been a staggering problem so the disciples were frantic about what to do.
Jesus gave them shocking directions. “You give them something to eat.” They thought what most of us would have thought. “That would take more than half a years’ wages!” (Mark 6:37). It’s so easy to reduce our challenges to how much will it cost and where will I get the material. That is often an intelligent approach to a problem. However, we need to include God in our calculations.
When Mother Theresa was raising money to go to India an Englishman asked her how much she had received. She said, “two half-pennies.” He said to her: “Two half-pennies. How much is that?” She responded: “Two half-pennies plus God. How much is that?”
When Jesus asks us to do something what we have is enough. With thousands of hungry people waiting to be fed, with His disciples not knowing what to do, Jesus was teaching all of us the lesson Mother Theresa learned. “Five loaves and two fish plus God. How much is that?” The answer was clear then and it’s clear for us now. What we have is enough when God asks us to do something.
