mepastormike

I'm excited about tomorrow morning. My oldest son, Christian, will be going with me to lead a chapel service for a local Christian school; the elementary classes. I had asked Christian some months ago about his interest in going with me to lead a service and he said that he would. My excitement comes more from the fact that we will share in this together. It's a fun time for me already, and having my son there too will only make it that much more fun.
The story we will share (in a dramatized way) will be of Jesus feeding the 5 thousand with loaves and fishes (from Mark 6). As I was reviewing this passage I came across something that I had not paid much attention to before; the attitude of the disciples. Mark 6 begins by explaining that the disciples were tired and hungry, so Jesus tells them to come with Him to a quiet place and rest. They no sooner get to where they were going when a very large crowd gathered around them. The disciples tell Jesus to send the people away because it was late in the day and folks needed to eat (again, the disciples were already tired and hungry). Jesus has compassion for the people and tells the disciples to feed them. I get the picture in my head that the disciples get into a little huddle and come out with the best excuse they had about why they could not do this... it would cost too much money. It would cost too much alright... It would cost the tired, hungry disciples more than they wanted to spend in money, time, and energy.
But Jesus performs a miracle by taking a few loaves and fishes to feed a multitude of people. Later on in this chapter of Mark we read of the disciples going on ahead of Jesus across the Sea of Galilee. A storm came up late at night and while the tired (but now well fed) disciples were working to keep the boat from sinking Jesus comes walking on the water and scares the disciples to death. But Jesus tells them to not be afraid, and gets into the boat then the storm quits. The disciples are amazed at what just happened. But then the Scripture lets us in on something left over from the miracle of feeding the people. Mark chapter 6, verse 52 states, "for they had not understood about the loaves; their hearts were hardened."
Let me leave with a couple of things to think about: What had they not understood? Has my attitude ever caused me to miss the miracle?