READING: Mark 8-10
We are too often easily distracted by today’s burdens. Even when the burden really is not that heavy.
I’m mindful of that truth when I read the stories of the disciples in today’s reading. We know they had been instrumental in distributing food for 5000 men in Mark 6. It seems they were “hands on” in that miracle, continually experiencing multiplication as they handed out loaves and fish. Today, we learn they experienced the same thing in feeding 4000 men.
Overall, the situation was like the first one. Many people were hungry. They didn’t have enough food. Jesus challenged the disciples to do something about it—but they didn’t fully understand that the Multiplier was among them. Jesus, though, stepped into the story and so worked a miracle that all four gospels record at least the feeding of the 5000. It surely was amazing.
But . . . these same disciples got stressed in Mark 8 because they had only one loaf among them in the boat! Surely, they should have known by then that limited bread was not a problem for Jesus. They should have . . . but they responded like you and I so often do: they allowed today’s problem to get in the way of their clinging to God’s miraculous care in the past. When we allow today’s burden to be weightier than God’s continual care, guidance, and protection for His people throughout the centuries—and more particularly, weightier than God’s ongoing provisions for us—we’ve allowed the burden to distract us. We forget the Caregiver.
PERSONAL REFLECTION: Is something distracting you today?
PRAYER: “Father, help me remember Your care and provision no matter what I face today.”
TOMORROW’S READING: Mark 11-13