Something Ordinary
Something Ordinary – 14.08.23
Since my contribution last month, I have eaten lunch with new friends, thoroughly enjoyed a fish and chip tea; I have indulged in a cream scone, enjoyed homemade cakes and munched on scrumptious biscuits (and yes I am still trying to have just `one a day’ but it doesn’t always work!)
The generosity and hospitality of people, as I have started to build relationships and get to know them has been brilliant. People have been giving generously and this has been an act of fellowship, often sharing something simple but in doing so has provided an opportunity for conversation, to make links, opening a channel for God to work through.
In the story of the feeding of the 5,000 in Matt 14:13-21. He asked the disciples to feed the masses of people who had been listening to Jesus’ teaching. But they were out of their depth – coming up with only five loaves and two fish from a boy who was willing to share. Jesus used something ordinary, a gift of fish and bread and did something extraordinary with it. Having blessed the food, there was one big picnic on the hillside, where everyone had sufficient to eat and there was some to spare.
I am sure the little boy didn’t think for a moment that the sharing of his lunch would result in an event that we are still talking about today.
As we go through life, we shouldn’t be of the opinion that we have nothing to give, it’s not enough, that things are too costly, we’re not bright enough, we’re too old, we haven’t got anything posh or fancy to offer (and I don’t just mean food and refreshments). Jesus is wanting us to bring the ordinary and to allow him to do something extraordinary with it.
Most people are probably not thinking about Christmas carols in August but the carol by Chritina G Rossetti, `In the bleak midwinter” springs to mind with the words
“What can I give him, poor as I am,
If I were a shepherd I would bring a lamb;
If I were a wise man I would do my part;
Yet, what I can, I give him,
Give my heart.”
What is it that you can give?