A Picnic

(From Matthew 14, Mark 6, Luke 9 and The Jesus Storybook Bible)

5,000 people had been sitting all day listening to Jesus. They were sitting on a hillside away from the town. They had not eaten all day, and they were hungry. Jesus' disciples told him, "Send them away to get food." But Jesus said, "You give them food." The disciples looked at each other, puzzled. They didn't bring any food. It would take too much money to buy food, even if there were a store nearby.

Jesus knew they felt panicked. "What food do you have already? Go check." There was a boy in the crowd whose mother had packed him a lunch of five loaves of bread and two fish. He gave all of it to the disciples. Not enough for 5,000... but they brought it to Jesus.
Some people laughed. But God would make it more than enough. Jesus winked at the little boy and said, "Watch."

Everyone wondered, "What is he thinking?" But Jesus knew the One who made the oceans and all the fish, the One who made everything in the beginning, out of nothing. How hard would this be for Someone like that?

Jesus took the boy's lunch, looked up to heaven, and thanked his Father. He handed the food to his friends, and they began to hand it out. And they kept handing it out. And handing it out. And when everyone had had enough, they collected big baskets full of the leftovers. 5,000 people had eaten and were satisfied!

Jesus did many other things that were not "natural." But it was the most natural thing in the world. It's what God had been doing from the beginning. Taking the nothing and making it everything. Taking emptiness and filling it. Taking darkness and making light.