Matthew 14: 15-21
Gaining a fact from the book of John, we know that Jesus walked from the shore of the lake, called the Sea of Galilee, to a mountain, and then walked up the mountain to a “mountainside” area. Though we do not know how far He walked, we know from a detail given by Matthew, Mark, and Luke that the place was “remote.” And we know people, thousands of men, women, and children, followed Him.
I find it interesting that all but Luke mention there was grass there. Mark specifically states the grass was green. There in such an arid region, green grass was probably rare.
And then, Jesus fed numerous people by supernaturally multiplying five loaves of bread and two small fish. It was a miracle.
Before performing the miracle to feed many people, Jesus looked to heaven and gave thanks.
Because of all Jesus has done for us, we can look to heaven and give thanks.
Once I read a piece by a famous theologian, and the man made the statement that heaven is not mentioned many times in the Bible. In my reading of Scripture in the following weeks, I started noticing the word “heaven” frequently. The word “heaven” was ‘jumping out at me.’ And I became aware that in many of the parables, Jesus began the parable stating: “The kingdom of heaven is like….”
We followers of Jesus need to emulate Jesus, including keeping a daily focus on heaven, and including giving daily thanks to Jesus, the One who loves us.
Hunter Irvine
