Spinning his wheels?

Perhaps one of the first miracle accounts many of us learned in Sunday School was the one about Jesus feeding five thousand. 

10 Jesus said, “Tell everyone to sit down.” This was a place with a lot of grass, and about 5000 men sat down there. 11 Jesus took the loaves of bread and gave thanks for them. Then he gave them to the people who were waiting to eat. He did the same with the fish. He gave them as much as they wanted.
John 6: 10-11 ERV

We can probably agreed that's pretty amazing. Matthew (15:31-33) and Mark (8:1-3) record that a different time Jesus fed over 4000. What a catering service! But, back to the account of him feeding 5000 men. (Don't get me started on the omission of the women and children that must have been present.)

May we take a different tact on the recounting? 

By this time, Jesus had done some remarkable things which at least some of the disciples had witnessed. You'd think they'd be figuring out that Jesus wasn't just another teacher. He was the real deal, people!

​Take a look at this snippet of conversation between Jesus and a couple of his posse: 

5 Jesus looked up and saw a crowd of people coming toward him. He said to Philip, “Where can we buy enough bread for all these people to eat?”6 He asked Philip this question to test him. Jesus already knew what he planned to do.
7 Philip answered, “We would all have to work a month to buy enough bread for each person here to have only a little piece!”
8 Another follower there was Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter. Andrew said, 9 “Here is a boy with five loaves of barley bread and two little fish. But that is not enough for so many people.”
John 6: 5-9 ERV

​Talk about a couple of Debbie Downers! Can't you just imagine Jesus shaking his head in frustration and saying to them,"Boys, boys, don't you get it? There's absolutely NOTHING I CAN'T DO!"

Do you ever sit on prayers, Dear Reader? I sure do. It's a desire of my heart, but it just seems too big to ask for, or I'm not worthy to ask for it. Either way, I wonder if Jesus sits on the right hand of God, shaking his head, and saying, "Alice, Alice, when will you get it? THERE'S ABSOLUTELY NOTHING I CAN'T DO?"

And what about this? Do you think Jesus is as willing to multiply our faith as he multiplied the fishes and loaves? What if we were like Philip and Andrew, and threw up our hands in helplessness?

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​What's your biggest prayer, Dear Reader? In the season of preparation, what if we started with ourselves? What if we asked God to multiply our faith? What if we stopped spinning our wheels and prayed our biggest prayers ever? What if we prepared our hearts to be amazed at how God wants to bless us?

Come on, Dear Reader! This year for his birthday, can we give Jesus a little bit of faith and a lot of helplessness, then expectantly wait to see what miracles he does in our lives?

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 “Jeremiah, I am the Lord. I am the God of every person on the earth. You know that nothing is impossible for me.”
Jeremiah 32:27 ERV

 But Jesus looked at them and said to them, “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
​Matthew 19:26 RSV