“One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, ‘There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish.  But what are they among so many people?’”

Once upon a time there was a boy.  There was nothing strange or unusual about him; he was just a boy who lived with his family in a fishing village by the sea.  Most of the time, life in the village was fairly quiet.  Every day, the boy walked from his house down to the water, where he watched the fishermen work.  How he loved to watch them with their nets, pulling in huge piles of slimy, squirmy fish!  He would stay as long as he could, standing there on the edge of the water.  Sometimes, if he were lucky, one of the fishermen would give him a fish or two to take back to his mother, and he would run home to help her prepare the fish for dinner.

Lately, though, life in the village had been a little dull.  The boy continued to go to school, and he helped his mother around the house, and we went down to the water to watch the fisherman work.  But it wasn’t very much fun anymore.  The boy wanted to leave the village; he wanted to have some adventures of his own.  But, of course, he was not old enough.  He was only nine years old, and his parents didn’t let him wander off by himself.  So he continued to go and watch the fishermen work, but his heart just wasn’t in it.

The boy’s mother knew that he was unhappy, that he wanted to be grown-up and to be able to do as he wished.  As a special treat, she gave him a little money from the family’s money pot, and told him he might get himself a little something at the market in the village.  This made the boy happy, and for a little while he forgot his troubles.  He went to the man who sold bread, and bought six barley loaves, for those were his favorite treat.  He decided to eat them very slowly, so that they would last all afternoon.  He left five of the loaves in his sack, and nibbled on the sixth loaf as he made his way down to the water to watch the fishermen work.  He got his toes wet in the water, and watched the fish wriggle and squirm, and talked to the fishermen as they worked on their nets.  One kindly man gave him some fish.  And so it was that the boy was heading home with some fish and a sack of barley loaves. 

The boy walked slowly, up the hill and around the bend that would take him to the village and his home.  But when he rounded that bend, he knew that something different was going on.  There was a huge crowd gathered, bigger than any group of people the boy had ever seen, except when his parents had taken him into the city.  What were they doing in his village, he wondered?  The people looked tired, and he thought he could hear them complaining.  What was wrong?  He decided to sit down on a rock, near the water, and watch to see what would happen. 

Suddenly, he saw a man pointing at him, and saying something about him.  The boy could not imagine what the man was talking about.  He started to feel nervous.  Had he done something wrong?  Should he leave and go home?  Yes, that sounded like a good idea.  He began to gather his things, and to make his way for home.  But before he could get even a few steps from the rock, the man rushed over to him. 

“Son,” he said, “do you see all these people?  They’re all hungry.  We’re trying to find food anywhere we can.  I see you’ve got some fish, and you’re carrying a sack of bread.  Could we use it?  It won’t go very far, what with all these people here, but for right now it’s all we’ve got.” 

The boy looked past the man at the hungry crowd.  He looked at the group of leaders, trying to figure out where to get food.  And, standing off to the side, was another man.  He was just standing there, watching the commotion around him.  It looked like he was chuckling, though the boy didn’t know what was so funny.  Suddenly, the man looked toward him, and smiled kindly. 

The boy thought about the fish.  He didn’t mind giving those up so much, he could get fish from the fishermen anytime.  But oh, those barley loaves!  Those were a real treat.  His fingers held tightly to the bag, and he wondered whether he could actually give them up.  But something in that nice man’s smile reminded him of his parents, always reminding him to share.  He knew what the right thing to do was, even if he wasn’t sure that he wanted to do it.  And so the boy gave the two fish and his five loaves to the man.  The man must have been in a hurry, because he barely said thank you, took the food, and ran back to the crowds.  The boy sat back down on the rock, to see what would happen. 

The man with the kind smile took the food, and said the dinner prayer, just like his family did before eating.  He began to hand the food out the people, and just as soon as the boy was sure that the food would be gone, there was more of it!  He was very confused.  Why wasn’t that man running out of food?  Was it possible that so many people could be fed from the little bit of food that he had offered?

After the people had eaten, they began to leave.  The boy didn’t know what to do, so he began to walk home.  He was quiet, thinking to himself about all that he had seen and heard.  He didn’t know why his little bit of food had been enough, it didn’t make any sense.  He remembered the man who had smiled so kindly at him, and somehow he knew that this man had made his food be enough for everyone.  The boy was very, very glad that he had shared what he had. 

After that day, the boy didn’t think his life was so dull.  He still wasn’t allowed to leave the village by himself, but that didn’t seem so bad anymore.  He knew that he could do something important, even if he wasn’t very big yet.  After all, the little bit that he had been willing to share by the lake had been enough to feed a whole crowd of people, even if he didn’t understand how. 

The little boy is not so different from you and me.  We often long to do something big, or important, but we don’t know how.  But when we’re willing to share what little we have, Jesus can make even a little gift be enough to help in a big way.  We don’t have to worry about how little we have to share, as long as we’re willing to share it.  God’s love makes our love big enough to go around.