Good morning, dear people.
Lots going on. Yet I forced myself to take some time to ponder today’s passage and compose some thoughts—maybe rabbit trails.
I’ll stick on a photo from our little outing with Thano and his boys on Monday/Memorial Day. We hiked up to Mirror Lake near Mount Hood.
May your day be blessed with that valuable sense of “Wow!”
Love and prayers—Ray.
First, before attempting to take apart anything in this passage, let’s establish the awesome premise for viewing everything. And I do mean EVERYTHING. “In the very beginning the Living Expression was already there. And the Living Expression was with God, yet fully God. They were together—face-to-face, in the very beginning. And through his creative inspiration this Living Expression made all things, for nothing has existence apart from him! Life came into being because of him, for his life is light for all humanity” (John 1:1-4, The Passion Translation).
I cannot escape the all-encompassing impact of this description—with the obvious connection between the “Living Expression” (commonly translated as “the Word”) as being the pre-incarnate Jesus Christ—being one and the same with Creator God. This is heavy! But how else can we process this information?!
Against this backdrop, what do you make of this scene where Jesus, the Creator of all things, including all food, now pauses to give “thanks for the food?” If nothing else, I believe this scene sets a precedent for all of us who participate in the gift of life to exercise an attitude of humility and gratitude for that gift as well as all the other gifts that sustain that gift. Indeed, WE HAVE NOTHING THAT HAS NOT BEEN GIVEN US—including our living existence.
In response, I find myself singing again a song with a simple line that puts everything into meaningful perspective—“The reason I live is to worship You” (“When I Look into Your Holiness”—Kent Henry). Can anyone offer me a more simplified yet profound reason for my existence? Is there a purpose for my being any bigger than that? If it is true that “Life came into being because of him,” then life is a God-thing. In this sense, there is nothing really natural about what many call nature. Life is really supernatural. That explains the source/cause of all life in general, and my life in particular. This can only mean that God my Maker is worthy of my attention—not only that, He is worthy of my worship—indeed worthy of my loving Him passionately. I recognize that, independent of this core calibration of my internal compass, I will most definitely wander off course. Is there any question, then, why our gracious all-knowing God would clearly state this as the highest priority requirement for our human existence? (Matthew 22:36-40)
Suddenly this sensational miracle of Jesus feeding more than 5000 people by multiplying a few little loaves and fish comes very close to being no big deal. After all, by means of the miracle of life, Jesus (Creator God) has been feeding all living things (multiplied millions of people) by means of other living things from the very beginning of time. Wow!