Learn about heaven’s kingdom realm with the wide eyed wonder of a child. Matthew 18:3 (TPT)
Wonder of a Child – The Table Series – Part 3
Go to PART 1 | PART 2 | PART 3 | PART 4 | PART 5 | PART 6 | PART 7
We try and sit around the table for dinner most nights. Our kids are six and four, so dinner is often messy, and always LONG. Haha! Some nights are tedious and frustrating, kids rejecting food and tantrums being thrown. Other nights are hilarious and nourishing, where we laugh till our sides hurt and our food goes cold. What I’m noticing around the dinner table are the unique perspectives of my kids. They pick up on things you can’t see, they show different sides to stories you’ve heard a thousand times. Sometimes the simple insight they have about what’s going on around us stops me dead in my tracks. They see the world, often more clearly than I do. Kids have a simple, yet wonder-filled faith and curiosity that I think many of us spend our adult years trying to recover.
Matt 18:3 (TPT) says, “Learn this well: Unless you dramatically change your way of thinking and become teachable, and learn about heaven’s kingdom realm with the wide-eyed wonder of a child, you will never be able to enter in.”
After a crazy day of healing and teaching, and grief and stories, and joy and work, Jesus found himself in the middle of a five-thousand-plus hungry crowd. The story can be found in Matt 14, Mark 6, Luke 9, and John 6.
The disciples wanted Jesus to send the crowd away so they could find something to eat and somewhere to sleep. But Jesus had a better idea.
What better way to end a beautiful and meaningful day than to share food with those involved? What more effective way is there to get to know your neighbor, to break down social and class barriers, to see your friend and foe alike in the same light, than to sit down and eat and drink together. Food was/is sacred in Jewish culture, and for good reason. As it is in many, if not all, cultures.
The problem was, there was no food anywhere, not for miles.
But then there was this kid… (I reckon he would have been like one of those kids from “Stranger Things…”) This little boy who had a bit of food with him: a couple of fish, smoked maybe, and some bread. And he gave what he had to the disciples.
I wonder if his family were hungry? If his mum let him give away his food? If he saw the need, heard the grumbling stomachs of those around him and thought that giving away his food was a good idea.
Maybe the young boy could see what was happening, could feel it in the crowd. Perhaps he looked down at his food and knew that somehow, someway, he needed to share his nourishment with those around him.
There is great need around us and within us. It’s all too tempting to keep what we have to ourselves, to ensure that we do not go without. Store up, withhold, hide away, hoard our blessings.
Western Christianity is rife with this behavior. To tell you the truth, I struggle with it myself. And it’s often my children who remind me to live more generously and openly. Maybe it takes a little child-like wide-eyed wonder to let go of our “keeping for ourselves” ways, and instead make more room at the table; to bring what we have, sit with all kinds of different people – some that we love and more that we don’t – and share a meal as one.
Something miraculous and unexpected happens when we realize that “when we have all that we need, we should build a longer table, not a higher fence.” (author unknown).
When we give of ourselves to nourish others, everyone ends up being fed.
Go to Part 4 – Bread and Fish »
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