Day 4

Miracles of Food and Drink

from the reading plan


Matthew 14:14-21, Luke 5:4-11, John 21:1-11, John 2:1-11


The year was 2001. A relatively unknown writer named Leif Enger released a book titled Peace Like A River. It is one of my favorites. In the first few pages some truths are laid down about miracles, real miracles. One that has stuck with me since my first reading is this: “No miracle happens without a witness. Someone to declare, Here’s what I saw. Here’s how it went. Make of it what you will.”

The miracles presented in today’s texts are not cut from the spectacular. The sun did not suddenly stand still; no dead bodies rubbed their eyes and woke up; no men walked fluidly across the surface of the sea. No, these miracles deal with the multiplication of the mundane, the stuff of earth like bread and fish and wine. But because they were still miracles, there were witnesses ranging from the disciples to the curious onlookers. And while they may not have taken the witnesses’ breath away, these miracles definitely left them satisfied.

The fact that Christ took time out of His busy schedule of saving the world to focus on common things like food and drink can be a comfort to most of us, for most of us don’t live in the world of the spectacular. Oh, it’s possible we do in our dreams, but for most of us our waking moments are filled with what one writer called “the precious ordinary.” But you see, it is in the very ordinariness of our lives that Christ often does the extraordinary, if—and this is a big “if”—we’re paying attention. In other words, if we’re doing the job each and every one of us is called to do: to be witnesses.

Here’s the deal. Jesus may not miraculously multiply the food in your fridge. But He may nudge your neighbor to bring over two dozen of the eggs His hens just laid. And the conversation the two of you have in that moment, which usually has all the zing of a cheap bottle of red, may strangely warm into something that feels aged, vintage even.

Would those be classified as modern-day miracles? Well, they might be if someone was paying attention, if someone was there to witness them, to stand knee-deep in the ordinary and declare, “Here’s what I saw. Here’s how it went. Make of it what you will.”

Written by John Blase

Post Comments (7)

7 thoughts on "Miracles of Food and Drink"

  1. Matt says:

    I live the idea of being “knee deep” in the ordinary. It’s so easy to think miracles are always large scale. There are miracles every day, tee’d up for us, if we are in tune with the spirit to swing on it. I wonder how often I miss opportunity to be a part or witness a miracle, small or large, because I’m simply not paying attention.

  2. Trey says:

    Today’s passages deal almost exclusively with Jesus miraculously multiplying and/or providing food and drink to those who needed it. This goes back a day to me and reiterates how Jesus’s miracles weren’t selfish, they helped people in a tangible way. Food is often mundane, there’s nothing sexy or particularly exciting about it but often times the miracles Jesus is doing in our life is through things like that that we often fail to see or realize. He is more than capable of accomplishing the extremely miraculous, but He also works so fluidly in the small things as well.

  3. Bobby says:

    Miracles are witnessed but are declared everyday. It may directly or even indirectly. Gods takes care of everyone no matter who it is because he loves us all.

  4. Malcolm Combest says:

    It is amazing what God can do with so little. I’ve found that I am happier in church than in any other place. It seems to be some of the only times I am fully content and ready to face the world. It’s because I leave church and suddenly get distracted by so many worldly things. I seem to miss a large amount of all of the glorious works of God. I strive to open my eyes to it all.

  5. Luke Tanner says:

    Jesus’s miracles that deal with food and drink show us that His miracles are not just on a large scale. Jesus Christ shows us that “ordinary” things still matter, and we can use those kinds of miracles to connect with people and witness to them.

  6. Dalen Hanquist says:

    Jesus may not miraculously make food and drink appear out of nothingness, but he might have someone bring us desperately needed food and drink. We can not realize however this is a miracle if we’re not witnessing it, in the “ordinary”

  7. Mike Pagan says:

    Jesus has had many modern day miracles.
    I love the analogy used in the story about the neighbor bringing a box of eggs. Community is one the most important things in a persons life. It makes me wonder how many times I’ve been a witness to a miracle, and also if there any other times that I may have missed out.

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