2 Kings 4:42-44 / Ephesians 4:1-6 / John6:1-15
Whenever the phrase “size does matter” is used, one thought that would come to mind would be “the bigger the better”.
Certainly, the bigger would be better, in terms of status and prestige and of course pride.
So, for a car, the bigger the better; for a house, the bigger the better; for a spending budget, the bigger the better.
By worldly standards, size does matter, and the bigger the better. Big things get the attention and the spotlight. They are impressive, and they may even look sophisticated and expensive.
And when the big things get all the attention, then the small and little things are often overlooked and neglected.
But if great oak trees grow from little acorns, and forest fires start with a small spark, then those small and little things are not unimportant.
In fact, big things are held together by little things, just like how shoes are held on to the feet by shoelaces.
The gospel account is about the famous story of the miraculous multiplication of loaves and the feeding of the multitude.
It is an important story as it appears in all the four Gospels. The main point of the story is that God will always provide for the hungry and the needy.
The story has a few salient points for reflection, like Jesus testing Philip, the small boy with the five barley loaves and two fish and the twelve baskets of leftovers.
But there is one line that may seem rather unimportant and maybe even unnecessary, and the line is this: It was shortly before the Jewish feast of Passover.
So why is that line there in the gospel story? Of what significance or importance is that line?
The Jewish feast of the Passover is an important feast. It recalls the freedom from slavery in Egypt and how they became the people of God.
It also recalled how the people were tested in the desert and that God provided them food for the journey.
So, that simple line does not just tell us at what time the story happened. In fact, it prepared for the unfolding of the story of the multiplication of loaves and the feeding of the multitude.
So that simple line is an important line in the midst of the other more dramatic and salient points of the story.
It also points to the fact that God uses the lowly and humble things to work His power and miracles.
And so the lowly five barley loaves and two fish were used to feed the five thousand men, with twelve baskets of leftovers.
So as much as size does matter, and the bigger the better, yet God is always on the side of the lowly and humble.
There is this story of a big company that has soap packaging production lines, but the production lines had a flaw.
Some boxes were not loaded with the soap and were delivered to the stores and hence there were complaints.
Engineers were called in to look into the problem. A sophisticated system of mechanical, microelectronics, automation and X-ray detection technology were used to successfully solve the problem, but that incurred a high cost.
At another smaller factory, the same production line was used to pack the soap and had the same problems.
The supervisor thought about it, and he came up with a simple idea of getting a powerful industrial fan to blow away the empty boxes, and the problem was solved, at a relatively low cost.
So, the moral of the story is to always look for simple solutions to big problems, and the solutions are usually in the simple and humble things.
Well, size may matter, and the bigger may be better, but God always works through the lowly and humble, just as He worked through that small boy with the five barley loaves and two fish to solve that big problem of the five thousand hungry men.