The little boy woke that morning and looked out on a bright and beautiful day. He jumped up and saw his mum at work in the kitchen. She looked around and saw him and smiled, what a beautiful boy she thought.
“Good morning,” she said. “I hope I didn’t wake you. Father and the other boys have already gone to work, what are you going to do today?”
“I’m off to the lake, is that ok?”
“I’ve made you lunch, have a great day. Enjoy yourself, but be careful.”
“Bye Mum.”
And so after scoffing down a small but adequate breakfast, the boy took off running. He loved it down by the lake, it was quiet and he enjoyed trying to spot his father and brothers fishing. He could always tell, the shape of the boat and his brothers arguing.
He ran over the top of the hill and stopped dead. What was this? So many people, why were they all here? No quiet this morning. He started to move through the crowd and talk to them. They had come from all over the place. Up early they were listening to the stories of one man and he was entertaining. They loved listening to him and he did miracles as well, it was all good fun and a change from the boredom. People were asking, “who was this man?”
It was an amazing day and lost in it all the boy had had fun. It was late in the day and time to head home but he was hungry, he had forgotten to eat lunch. He looked around, nobody had any food with them, everyone was getting hungry. He couldn’t eat his lunch in front of all these people but how would he share it, there were too many.
As he was pondering this, a man, a very big man approached him. He asked, “Any food around here?”
The boy stepped forward and said, “I have my lunch.”
“Come on then,” came the gruff reply. And without looking to see if the boy followed, he strode off.
“Jesus, I’ve found some food, but I don’t know how it is going to go round.”
“Let me look,” Jesus said.
And the boy suddenly felt smaller as Jesus approached. He opened up his bag and showed the five loaves and two fishes his mum had packed for him.
Peter laughed, “Is that it! Well we’re all going away hungry!”
Jesus looked at the boy and smiled, “Do you know me?”
The boy said he had heard about him and then he whispered to Jesus, “Could I see a miracle?”
And Jesus laughed and said to him, “With faith, you can see a miracle.”
Several hours later, a smiling boy sitting on Jesus’ lap said, “I want to follow you forever.”
Years later, as he stood before the Roman court he had been found guilty of being a follower of Jesus. He was sentenced to death. As he was led out to die, he looked heavenward and he heard Jesus’ reply, “You will my friend.”
God does not ask about our ability or our inability, he wants to know about our availability.
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