God and I talk through music a lot. He always gives me the right song when I need it. I was in John last night, well this morning at 4 am. My half opened eyes were unwilling to sleep and I felt God calling me to spend time with Him. I was reading the story in chapter 6 about the boy with fishes and loaves. I didn’t think much of it… or anything for that matter when I read it at first. Then, a song came on the radio today. I’ve heard this song so many times but today it jumped out and brought my 4 am reading to the front of my heart. Josiah Queen’s Fishes and Loaves.

In John, we read about a boy who offered his lunch to Jesus. Imagine a crowd of 5,000 people. Jesus sat down with His disciples and when he looked up, He saw the crowd following Him and asked Philip about feeding the 5,000 people. I love the verse immediately following this part in verse 6. Jesus already knew what to do but He was testing him. I can see Jesus’ half grin as He is presented with a small boy and 5 fish and 2 loaves of bread. His disciples questioning how it’s all going to work. Almost a “Have you not learned by now who I am?”.

While this story reflects God’s magnitude and power, I don’t think this is the whole point. It’s about placing what little we have into the hands of a God who always multiplies. It’s about surrender.

I don’t know where this originated from but as I started to study this passage I swathe following and it’s gut puncher.

“God does not require abundance; He requires availability.”

See, the miracle didn’t start when the food was in Jesus’ hands and it multiplied. It began when it was surrendered.

People now are starving. Not just literally, but spiritually. We are the most lonely, hopeless, lost, people. We are seeking truth and peace and purpose. Nothing has changed. We are still lost in the crowd or even right at Jesus’ feet asking Him to perform miracles in our lives and waiting for Him to fix it all with closed hands. Still grasping on to what little we own or have control over. We won’t let go of our fishes and loaves. What we have is so puny in the scheme of things. Compared to the debt we should owe and the magnitude of what Jesus did for us, nothing I can ever give Him will ever be enough to even come close to what He has done. I owe Him my life. Yet, what we see as leftovers and shortcomings, Jesus sees as enough.

Moses had a staff.

David had a sling and a rock.

The boy had lunch for maybe two people.

Obedience often requires us to cross the battlefield between logic and faith. It’s not easy. It’s uncomfortable.BUT God is not limited by us. He is not limited by what we have. We simply get to be part of what He is doing. He invites us to bring the big, the little, and the in-between to His hands and surrender them… Trusting He will do more than we can ask, think, or imagine.

And my heart needed that today.

What you place in His hands will always become more than it was in yours…

Under The Sun.