What Is In Your Hand?

Everyday lessons for life
From the Bible record of the feeding of the 5000 as recorded for us in Mark 6:30-44.

³⁵And when the day was now far spent, his disciples came unto him, and said, This is a desert place, and now the time is far passed:  ³⁶Send them away, that they may go into the country round about, and into the villages, and buy themselves bread: for they have nothing to eat. ³⁷He answered and said unto them, Give ye them to eat. (emphasis mine) And they say unto him, Shall we go and buy two hundred pennyworth of bread, and give them to eat? ³⁸He saith unto them, How many loaves have ye? go and see. And when they knew, they say, Five, and two fishes. ³⁹And he commanded them to make all sit down by companies upon the green grass. ⁴⁰And they sat down in ranks, by hundreds, and by fifties.

 ⁴¹And when he had taken the five loaves and the two fishes, he looked up to heaven, and blessed, and brake the loaves, and gave them to his disciples to set before them; and the two fishes divided he among them all. ⁴²And they did all eat, and were filled. ⁴³And they took up twelve baskets full of the fragments, and of the fishes. ⁴⁴And they that did eat of the loaves were about five thousand men.

What I have is nothing, really--my talents, my abilities, my resources-- in myself, I have nothing to give.  The need, the complexity, the magnitude is so great (whatever is before me on any given day: my "things to do" list, my problems, those who I will meet and the problems they bring to me).  There is no way that what I have will make any difference or meet the need.  Satan says, "Why bother?  Why try?  What difference can it--can you--possibly make?"


He is right, if not for Christ.  When I give Jesus what is in my hand--nothing really, but I give it, nonetheless--a miracle happens.  What before would not even be enough for me--or my family--now is more than enough for all the need!


Why did Jesus instruct the disciples to find out how much food they had?  Perhaps, I think, so they would recognize their total inability within themselves to meet the need.  Now they were ready to recognize Christ at work.  Now they were humble.


He had them sit everyone down on the grass.  Did they believe, or just obey?  Then Jesus gave them back what had been in their hand before, only now it had been transformed by His Touch, His Blessing.  Before He gave it back, He broke it.  When we give ourselves and what is in our hand to Him, we must be willing to be broken.  Then, in obedience, the disciples, and we, give what is in our hand--now transformed, changed, multiplied--to all those before us, and it fills them, feeds them, nourishes them.  And we are not left depleted and empty, but filled ourselves.  There is enough for all when we bring what is in our hand to Jesus.