We’ve had some frosty mornings recently. And as soon as the daylight appears, dozens of birds flock into the garden outside my window to feast on the feeders and ground food that my owner’s put out. And it’s rather a shame that some of them have to let the side down. Because there’s plenty of food to go around, but some still have to squabble over it. They want it all for themselves.
Which made it all the more pleasing when I heard about the following story which occurred in a nearby town. A couple of humans walked into a convenience store which sold a range of freshly-filled submarine rolls. They weren’t together, but it so happened that their lunchbreaks coincided. Sitting outside on the pavement was a homeless man. He wasn’t actively begging, but he sat there with that look of tired resignation that’s etched on to the faces of so many folk in his position. The human that had gone in first thought about him as he ordered his roll. He’d worked all morning. He was hungry. But as he left, he decided to hand his roll to the homeless man, who thanked him.
Photograph: Pixabay
He then started to walk back to the office where he worked. He’d gone a short distance when the second human that had been behind him in the shop came running up behind him. And this human insisted on giving up half of his roll to the first one. So, in the end, no one went hungry. The generosity of the two meant that the three were all fed.
And this made me think back to the story of “The Feeding of The Five Thousand” (Luke 9:10-17). This is when a handful of generous people gave up their precious provisions, -five loaves and a couple of fish, -for Jesus to convert into enough food to feed all five thousand people present. And once again, no one ended up by going hungry. Those who donated their food still received enough back to sustain them. You could say that God and Jesus provided for them. And that’s quite a thought, in a world that’s so full of the “haves” and the “have nots…….”
“Give and it will be given to you.” (Luke 6:38)