The other side of only
Have you ever noticed how often we say the word only when we’re faced with a challenge?
I only have so much time.
I only have so much money.
I wish I could do it, but I’m only (fill in the blank).
I don’t know what you’re facing today, but my guess is that it’s probably something that makes you feel like the disciples did when Jesus asked them to feed 5,000 men and their families.
“But we have only five loaves of bread and two fish!” they answered. (Matthew 14:17 NLT, emphasis mine)
There is something about the kingdom of God that always brings us to the end of ourselves and our resources. What’s interesting about this story is that the boy who had the 5 loaves and 2 fish had more than enough for himself, but not nearly enough for everyone else. His mother had literally packed him more than he needed, and while we can’t know for sure what her reason was, I don’t think it’s a stretch to say the boy had a mother who believed in and planned for generosity.
Back to the problem the disciples faced, we find that the margin — while more than enough for the boy — wouldn’t be nearly enough for the crowd. But something miraculous happens when we give our margin to Jesus. Margin gets multiplied until there is more than enough for the miracle.
In John’s account of this miracle, we read that 200 days worth of earnings would only have allowed the crowd to get a bite or two of food. Google tells me that the average American makes $190.88 a day, and so it would have taken over $38,000 in today’s currency to give all those people only a taste. But that small margin packed by a mom for her son was multiplied in the hands of Jesus until fifteen to twenty thousand people “ate as much as they wanted” and each disciple went home with a basket of bread!
Again, I don’t know what your only is, but I do know that there is a miracle on the other side of only when you give what you have to the Lord.
He turns water to wine.
He fills empty jars with oil.
He brings dead things to life.
He takes only and grows it into more.
Not just more, but more than enough.
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