Monday, February 21, 2011

Pickle Jars

Last night after dinner, our family gathered around the table and we read the story of Jesus feeding the 5,000.  A crowd had assembled on the hilltop to hear Jesus' teachings, but the day had grown long, and the people, hungry.  I was struck by the fact that when  it came time for Jesus to feed the crowd, he did not miraculously just make food appear from the heavens (although he could have!).  Instead, he first required something on the part of his disciples.  As always, God, in His mysterious nature, CHOOSES to use earthly creatures to carry out His heavenly plans. 

"By this time it was late in the day, so his disciples came to him.  'This is a remote place,' they said, 'and it's already getting late.  Send the people away so they can go to the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.'
But [Jesus] answered, 'You give them something to eat.'
The disciples said to him, 'That would take eight months of a man's wages!  Are we to go and spend that much on bread and give it to them to eat?'
'How many loaves do you have?' Jesus asked, 'Go and see.'"
-Mark 6: 35-38

Before Jesus ever even performed any miracles that afternoon, He first required his followers to step out in faith.  They needed to take the first step!  We see this pattern over and over throughout scripture.  Peter, walking on water....the friends who lowered the paralyzed man down through a roof and at the feet of Jesus....Abraham leaving his homeland to follow God. 

As we talked with our children about the application of this story to our lives, my daughter spoke up and said,  "Mommy, this reminds me of our adoption.  Just like God took what little food the disciples were able to find and turned it into enough to feed 5,000 people, God can take our little money jar, and multiply it to overflowing."  Wow.

"From the lips of children and infants, you have ordained praise!" 
~Psalm 8:2

Enter, our pickle jar:


When we first began our journey towards adoption, we emptied out a huge pickle jar and stuck it on our counter.  We thought it would be a fun way to get the kids involved in collecting money for our adoption.  They have had a blast finding spare change throughout the house and adding it to our jar.  

Well, last night, we took that big ole' pickle jar, and stuck it on the middle of our table.  And as a family, we prayed that God would multiply our "5 small loaves of bread - and 2 fish".  We prayed Malachi 3:10 over our pickle jar:

"Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house.  'Test me in this,' says the Lord Almighty, 'and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have enough room for it.'"

Won't you please join us in praying that God would do just that!  That He would multiply our pickle jar. That He would take our "loaves of bread" and multiply it to feed 5,000.  Or, in our case, just one orphan. :)


Kirsten

1 comment:

  1. We will pray with you in faith believing that God will show Himself strong, not just to encourage you, Charles and those precious Gregoire children, but there will come a day when you will share this journey with your Ethiopian child and he/she will know how much they are loved by a family, the family of God and most important, they we see how deep the Father's love is for them. Our faith must look like something, because we are taught faith without works is dead. We will add to that pickle jar, asking God to multiply our seed money.

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