Baskets

At church yesterday, we talked about the stories in
the gospels of the feeding of the four and five
thousand people, focusing on the means of serving and
the leftovers.

Our discussion can be summed up with one main thought
and two secondary points. Provision is the main idea:
God provides. Secondly, Christ-followers are called
to serve in his ministry: he does good through me; and
when God provides, He over does it and there's more
than enough.

The baskets are empty until they are put into service.
In fact, they are empty or without enough until they
are reached into. Jesus didn't set up a huge buffet
table and say, "line up", but sent out the disciples
with their baskets or arms filled with food. The more
they gave out, the more they had to give; and when
every one was fed, they had lots of leftovers.

We too have figurative baskets that are also empty and
that's not a bad thing. The good thing is that we
have the baskets that are ready for service, ready to
be filled, to be used. So, I want to remember, when
I'm out in the world, that God could have something to
give the someones around me out of my basket. Will I
look and see and act? Will I cut back on being so
inwardly focused and look outward at what God would
like to do? Will I stop putting it all on God and
start giving away what I already have from God?
That's what I want to do, plan to do, will do. Yes.