There is a lad here, which hath five barley loaves, and two small fishes… John 6: 9

When you get a chance, read and mediate on John 6: 1-13. Here, you will find the familiar story of how Jesus fed 5,000 hungry men (not counting the women and the children).

As you will recall, a great multitude had been following Jesus because they were impressed and blessed by his miraculous healings. However, on this particular day, in this particular place, Jesus perceived that the crowd not only hungered for the word, but they were also actually hungry for just for plain food.

When the Lord presented the problem to his disciples, they in essence said to him: “What can we do about it? We only have two hundred pennies and there are too many folk to be fed on our budget.” Then, one of the disciples named Andrew emerged from the crowd and made this profound pronouncement: “There is a lad here, which hath five barley loaves, and two small fishes…” (John 6: 9) This one line alone is reason to give thanks to the Lord.

For, it indicated that though, the multitude was large and their budget was relatively small, at least they had something to start with. They only had two hundred pennies, but they were not penniless. They only had one little boy to offer his resources, but they were not helpless. They only had two fish and five loaves of bread, but they were not lunch less!

Often we complain about what we don’t have when we overlook the fact that at least we have something to begin with. The man who had to pull himself up by his own boot straps had some boot straps to begin with. The student who had to work her way through school was already in school and had a job. The family wiped out by a hurricane yet had the clothes on their backs and breathe in their bodies.

Here is the point for you to take some time today and thank God that, with all of your challenges and all of your issues, you don’t have to deal with them by starting from scratch. Thank God for the blessing of beginning stuff.