Giving Thanks

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW

GIVING THANKS

Matt 14:15-21

15 As evening approached, the disciples came to him and said, "This is a remote place, and it's already getting late. Send the crowds away, so they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food." 16 Jesus replied, "They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat."  17 "We have here only five loaves of bread and two fish," they answered. 18 "Bring them here to me," he said. 19 And he directed the people to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people. 20 They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. 21 The number of those who ate was about five thousand men, besides women and children.

NIV

This may be the place in scripture we have gotten the idea that we should give thanks for the food we have before we eat. Although we are not told how long the prayer of Jesus was other then he looked toward heaven and gave thanks. It is good for us to give thanks for our food, although we are able to buy as much as we need with money that we work for. Here, we see Jesus taking just a little amount of food and using it to feed over five thousand people. Surely a miracle happened. We can just imagine what the disciples thought when they started to pass out the five loaves and bread and they keep passing it out and keep passing it out and they still had more loaves to pass out until all they people had enough bread and the same thing happened with those two fish. This reminds us of the widow who only had enough oil and flour to make one cake of bread that Elijah had her make for him and because she did her jars of oil and flour would not run out until the Lord made it rain. Every time she dipped into those jars the were full, no matter how much she told out, they remained full. If we do not get the picture that God will provide, then we are dense and without understanding. Sure, we might think that it is up to us to make enough money to supply all the food we need, but in the grand scheme of things, God is in the middle of it all, otherwise, why don’t we thank ourselves for the food we are able to eat. Even though we use our money to buy the food we need from the store, we still give God thanks for our food. Is that just a habit? Is it just something we have been told to do? Do we really believe that food on our table, whether at home or some restaurant, is provided by God? It certainly does not multiply on our plates. Our flour and oil jars empty with our use of them. Maybe, just maybe, we could believe God could keep them full, because it seems we do not believe like the disciples that those five loaves and two fish would feed that many people. Was that just a one time thing, or is this a lesson that we should look for God to multiply our need? There was a time, speaking on a personal level, that we had to look to God in order to pay all our bills with not enough money to pay them. We set aside our tithe, and then started writing checks, and kept writing checks until every bill was paid for that month and we had money left over in the checking account for food as well. We have experienced this multiplication of God and maybe we need to keep that kind of faith for everything else. God is God and we are but human, however, being human means, we are His creation and why would He not take care of His creation just as Jesus did with the people who followed him. Let us keep looking up to heaven and give thanks.