They used the miracle to demonstrate how acting from a mindset of scarcity, like the apostles in the story, leads one to be less generous, to send people away to find their own food, to hoard what we have. Jesus, however, acted from a perception of abundance, offered the food they had, five loaves and two fish, and with that 5,000 families were fed.
The modern interpretation of this miracle, which strips it of any miraculous qualities, is to say that when the baskets were passed, people in the crowd brought out their own stores of food and offered them to their neighbors. Thus, the food was all there from the beginning, but hidden and protected by people who feared there would not be enough. Although I miss the mirace sense of it, this interpretation is a helpful way to see the story.
And mostly, I have to tell myself to cut it out. Stop! Because this is actually the time of abundance. I have big bowls of sliced cucumber salad and potato salad in the fridge, a couple huge cabbages, and I’ve set up my little basket of extra beets,onions and carrots to go into my sister-in-law’s cellar storage room. Every few days I go pick two cups of basil and make another small batch of pesto for the freezer– I want more, am sure someone else nearby has a LOT more than I do and wonder how can I get my hands on some of it– but really, I need to stop. We are eating glorious food every day, here in August.
The world around us is overgrown and lovely. The monarch butterflies are in constant ecstacy, hanging and dancing in fused pairs over the prairie. After the last storm, and with the arrival of August, the swimming pond is clearing up and soon we’ll have the best swimming of summer. With dragonflies and swallows as companions.
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| You can bet this cateripiller on my volunteer dill plant knows it is the season of abundance! |