Congregations Caring for Children

How often are we in our faith communities confronted by great challenges

and the first voice heard is,  Where are we going to get the money?   Jesus re 

minds us that if we come together as a community, we will discover that we are

far more blessed than we think.  It is only as we see ourselves as a community

that we can be able to be aware of the great abundance that surrounds us.

The third scene occurs when the disciples offer to Jesus their meager findings.

They have asked around and have come up with five loaves of bread and two

fish.  One may wonder how hard they truly tried.  For them, the results of their

search reinforce their reality of scarcity.  They have looked and as they suspected,

there was little to go around.  In this we see a great truth, we often find that

which we think we will.  The disciples expect to find little, and little is what they

find.

Jesus does not seem to be discouraged.  He knew that five loaves of bread and

two fish would not feed 5,000 people.  But in spite of this, he takes the small

amount of food and offers thanks for it. What occurs next is truly a miracle.  As

Jesus shares the food with the crowd, the small offering is multiplied.  The results

being that the crowd eats until satisfied, with baskets of food left over.  This is

truly a miracle.

The third encounter is critical for us to pay attention to.  For without it, we

could see this lesson from Jesus as a simple teaching for positive thinking semi 

nar.  But the story will not let us come to such an easy solution.  For what hap 

pened that day was not just a lesson about attitudes; what happened that day

was a revelation of the abundance of God.  There will be those times in our lives

where all the positive thinking in the world will not suffice, we will still fall

short.  It is then that we must offer to God our best and await a miracle.  It may

not happen according to our timing, but if God is behind it, we will bear witness

to a miracle, the miracle of God's great faithfulness and abundance.

Concluding Comments on  The Abundance of God 

Concluding Comments on  The Abundance of God 

Concluding Comments on  The Abundance of God 

Concluding Comments on  The Abundance of God 

Concluding Comments on  The Abundance of God 

The abundance of God is all around us, we just need the eyes of faith to see.

A few years ago, a member at Shepherd of the Sierra cast a vision for our church

to respond to the new realities of welfare reform in California.  Her vision was to

start a child development center at our church.  There were some in our midst

who said, how can we do such a thing?  We hardly have enough space for our

own church programs, how will we be able to give up vital space for a child

center?  The questions were valid, but we decided to look at what we did have to

give and to allow God to work out the how.  In August of this year, the child

development center was opened.  The church's programs have had to adjust, but

they continue to thrive.  It would have been easy for the leaders of the church to

say, we just don't have enough to share.  Thanks be to God they caught a glimpse

of God's great abundance!

Used with permission from Rev. Dave Ratcliff, Shepherd of the Sierra Presbyterian Church (USA),

Loomis, CA.

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