An Oatmeal Cookie Offering

“There’s a little boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But that’s a drop in the bucket for a crowd like this.” John 6:9

When I was a little girl, our mother always packed our lunches. Most of the time I knew what I would have for lunch. But occasionally, I would open that little brown bag with my name written on the front to discover something I had not expected...one of my favorite things being a Little Debbie Oatmeal Cookie! By the time lunch rolled around I couldn’t wait to sit with my friends and see what they had in their lunchbox. Sometimes we would swap things if we saw something we liked better. But I never wanted to offer my oatmeal cookie...it was just too difficult to give up.

When Jesus asked the disciples how they were going to feed all of the people who had come to hear Him, Andrew pointed out a little boy who had some food which may have fed a few people. Now John stays silent on the conversation between the boy with the lunch and the person who asked him for it. All we know is that one minute he had his lunch and the next he did not. What if he favored his loaves and fish just like I did my oatmeal cookies? Did he gladly give up something special for himself to benefit so many others?

Every single thing we have in this life is a gift from God, making it potential material for sacrifice. Some things given to us bring great joy while other things create deep suffering. Some of the greatest people who have influenced my life have been those who have suffered but have given of themselves to help others in their suffering. Our suffering cannot become our religion and our brokenness can only be healed by offering it up to Jesus. Elisabeth Elliot, author of Suffering Is Never for Nothing writes, ‘Let it go. Offer it up. A sacrifice. If my life is broken when given to Jesus, it may be because pieces will feed a multitude when a loaf would satisfy only a little boy. God took a little boy’s lunch and He turns it into something for the good of the world because that individual let it go.’ p. 83, 85.

Will we?