Imagination

Luke 9:10-17

God has given us a wonderful gift and the modern world we live in has almost removed it from most of us, but children have it and most who read books, especially mysteries, still use it; it’s your imagination.  So today will you ask the Helper to allow your imagination to engage and be one of the twelve disciples?  My grandson John Mark would have no trouble identifying with a fisherman, in that it is also his passion, so he might pick James or John in the story, it matters not who you pick, just ask the Helper to give you a place in the story.

If I was Matthew, most of my life would have been collecting taxes, before I met Jesus I worked for the Roman government.  And I’m sure you understand that people were not all that happy with me and yet they feared what I could do to them, and now I’m not taking but giving, do you know that I was part of a larger team of twelve and that Jesus sent us out in two’s with no provisions, but with His power and authority and WOW!  I wish you had been there, it was amazing!  We told people they needed to repent, and they did and we were able to cast out demons and up to now we have been observers, Jesus has done all the demon removal, and he still is but He does it through me, now that’s a WOW!  And we also anointed the sick with oil and they were healed, and now we are returning to share all of this with Jesus, I am so excided, what a change has happen in me since meeting Jesus, since He called me to follow Him and I did, WOW!  I am excited.

And on our return Jesus took us away from the crowd to a town called Bethsaida, but our solitude did not last, the crowds learned where we were, and now this is just like Jesus, He was not upset, I believe I can speak for the twelve on this one, we were wanting to be alone with Jesus, and He welcomed the crowds.  They seemed to come from everywhere, thousands of them, in fact later we counted the men and there were about five thousand.

And in a crowd that large you have a lot of needs, and Jesus began to talk about the Kingdom of God and cured those who needed to be healed.  The day is getting late and the area we are in has never seen so many people and we came to Jesus and said, Master send them away so they can go to the surrounding villages and countryside to find lodging and get provisions, for we are in a desolate place.  Now I know this is going to blow you away, we were amazed; Jesus said, “You give them something to eat.”  This was our reply: “We have no more than five loaves and two fish – unless we are to go and buy food for all these people.”  I’m sure Jesus was thinking; you are the guys who just came back from casting out demons, and healing the sick; “Have them sit down in groups of about fifty each.”  By this time when Jesus said something we just obeyed what He said so that’s what happened and then Jesus took “the five loaves and two fish, and looking to heaven and said a blessing over them.  Then He broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd.  And they all ate and were satisfied.  And what was left over was picked up, twelve baskets of broken pieces.”

Not much has changed, for the same Jesus who did it all through Matthew and the twelve will do it all through you, for it is Christ in you the hope of glory.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice