Whenever I've read the story of the loaves and the fishes, I've wondered about the circumstances which led to it. Was it really a complete miracle, where the meagre amount of food stretched to 5000 people? I think the 5000 people listening to Jesus that day was in itself a huge coup for the cause of Christianity, or even Judaism in biblical times.
Today I've cooked a meal for our family on my husband's birthday, 10 people, including 4 children (a bit of a cheat, but hey, kids are hungry creatures!) So on request from my husband to do a simple chili & tacos I started out with two packs of mince, garlic & seasoning, tin of toms and left to simmer...then I added more toms and veg, simmered further and separated some to a 'kids pot' and added hot spices and beans to the 'grownups pot'...then I added a tin of chicken curry, a tin of beans and yet more toms...etc etc, yawn, to the grownups pot too. Huge pot of rice and 2 packets of tacos. Relatively unplanned, pile of tins of the side, quite embarrassing really for the claim of a home-made chili, but seemed to go down well and my 5 year old boy said it was the best tea he could think of...
Which has made me wonder if the fishes and the loaves actually came about through the community spirit of people wanting to stay and listen to Jesus and making impromptu rushes away from the site to bring refreshments to family and friends.
We will never know.....but I feel it's ok to speculate, and would not detract from the phenomena of Jesus' influence.
