Miracles

October 6, 2018

“And he said, “Bring them here to me.” Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass, and taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing. Then he broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. And they all ate and were satisfied. And they took up twelve baskets full of the broken pieces left over. And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children.”
Mathew 14:16-23

There will always be poor with us. “For there will never cease to be poor in the land.” Deut 15:11

How do we help? What can we do? What should we do? Should we do anything?

We reach out and help.

Sometimes we think we know best.
Sometimes we judge without knowing the story.
Sometimes we try to push our ideals onto others.
Sometimes others only want a listening ear, not an answer.
There are poor and homeless people everywhere around us. There is a community of homeless people located in a field that we drive by often. This field is lined with tents and overflowing grocery carts. As I attempt to sort out this vision, the miracles from the Bible come to mind. Not all of the miracles were to help the poor. But all of the miracles did have something in common.
Obedience, faith and trust.
In last weeks blog, I touched a bit on this subject with the story of the widow and the jars of oil. Miracles happen all around us all the time and we fail to realize it. The miracles that are brought to our attention in the Bible teach us more than, “God can do anything.” The fish and the bread miracle is another example of this.
Obedience, faith and trust.
Again, Jesus said to take what was available and start sharing. There was enough not only to feed everyone but there were enough left overs to fill 12 baskets. 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish fed over 5000 people and then, they had 12 baskets of left over bread.
Obedience, faith and trust.
The only way I see that we can have this type of Obedience, faith and trust is to
dig into God’s word and prayer. With prayer we not only get the support and strength we need to be obedient, we get the clarification of what God wants us to do. And if we have clarity with prayer in what our Heavenly Father wants from us then the natural byproduct is faith and trust.

The next time you see a shopping cart, remember the bread, fish, bowls and oil. What does our Holy Father want your next step to be?