Do you not perceive?

Matthew 16:9-10 - Do you not perceive? Do you not remember the five loaves for five thousand and how many baskets you gathered? Or the seven loaves for four thousand and the many baskets you gathered?

No, we do not, nor did the apostles. They were thinking of their bodily needs. They saw the miracles but they gave no thought to their significance or what it might mean for their lives and the lives of the world. Here is a man who can feed many people with a few ingredients and they still worry about bread.

Of course, I get it. I forget to consider the significance of the loaves and baskets gathered myself. Old habits are hard to break and many of us think about ourselves and our meals more than we probably need to. Yet, Jesus will not give up and walk away. Instead, he challenges the disciples to go deeper than they have. He challenges us as well to consider the blessings of our lives and how we too can use them to feed others; whether we feed love, companionship, housing assistance, joy, actual food, health care, worship. We are called to feed Jesus' sheep. Jesus will multiply our efforts just as he multiplied the bread so that even when we think our impact is small, it is greater than we can imagine.
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