feeding

Matthew 14

13 As soon as Jesus heard the news (of the death of John the Baptists), he left in a boat to a remote area to be alone.

But the crowds heard where he was headed and followed on foot from many towns.

14 Jesus saw the huge crowd as he stepped from the boat,

and he had compassion on them and healed their sick.
  

15 That evening 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 food for themselves."
  

16 But Jesus said, "That isn't necessary—you feed them."

  17 "But we have only five loaves of bread and two fish!" they answered.

  18 "Bring them here," he said.

19 Then he told the people to sit down on the grass.

Jesus took the five loaves and two fish, looked up toward heaven, and blessed them.

Then, breaking the loaves into pieces, he gave the bread to the disciples,

who distributed it to the people.

20 They all ate as much as they wanted,

and afterward, the disciples picked up twelve baskets of leftovers.

21 About 5,000 men were fed that day, in addition to all the women and children!

Think about this...

This event is reported in each of the 4 Gospels – that's rare.

Matthew says there were 5000 men.

For the sake of conversation, let's say there were 5000 women there too;

even though at most religious events I've been to, women outnumber men.

Ok, how many children do you think were there?

Birth control wasn't anywhere near what it is today,

but for the sake of conversation, let's say that each woman had an average of 2 children with her...

remember: child care was nonexistent.

So if each woman had 2 children, that makes 10,000 children.

Grand total of people there?

20,000

Can you wrap your brain around how many people that is?

Have you ever seen clips from a college or pro basketball game, or been to a game?

Most of those arenas hold between 18K & 19K.

That's how many people Jesus fed that day.

And He started out with 5 loaves of bread & 2 fish.

And there were 12 baskets of leftovers.

Think about that today.

Wouldn't it stand to reason that if Jesus can pull off something like that, He can take care of our everyday needs?