Abundance

Matthew 14:20-21 - And all ate and were satisfied. They took up twelve baskets of the broken pieces that were left over. And those who ate were about five thousand men, not counting women and children.

The abundance of God's gifts of food, shelter and warmth are not always obvious to us. i think this might be because we get greedy in our own ways and sometimes take more than our share. The end result is, of course, less for others. So, God's abundance is not obvious to us. Yet, walk into any grocery store or farmer's market and we can see a piece of it. Fruits and vegetables, bread and meat are all there. It is when we are lowest that we need to remember this.

I see this abundance at The Night Ministry. There is always food around. If it is not a meal, we almost always have snacks. Not always healthy snacks. Theirs is a ministry of abundance. Yet, it should not fall to charitable organizations to provide this kind of help. In America at least the theory is that government can provide on the necessary scale. Yet the greed and lies of the powerful lead to less for those who are in the most desperate straits. It is hard to see God's abundance.

Yet, here in this story it is evident. Once someone shares, they all share. The real miracle in this story is that no one interfered and all ate and were full. The Greek word means "full" rather than satisfied and that tells us that there was no need to take more. There was even some left over! I will go about my day thinking about the ways I get in the way, take more than my share.
B