For Christmas this year, my friend Rhonda gave me an amaryllis bulb encased in a round ball of red wax. I set it on the little table in my dining room and soon it produced beautiful red blooms. “That was nice,” I thought, clipped off the flowers when they finished blooming, and figured it was done.
But no! as the telemarketers say. A few weeks later here came more blooms, then a few weeks later it bloomed again. Now, over three months later, the bulbs inside that ball of wax are continuing to send up vibrant red flowers, with no end in sight.
The word fruitful comes to mind each time I walk past it. I think of the bright yellow daffodils in my garden that are blooming now. While beautiful, they are one and done, unlike the amaryllis that keeps bearing fruit. I haven’t even had to water or feed it.
My minister, Jonathan Barlow, is preaching through the book of John and a few weeks ago his sermon was on the feeding of the five thousand in John 6. You probably know the story – thousands of men, women and children have followed Jesus because they have heard of his miracles. Now they are assembled far away from any place to buy food.
Jesus takes the disciples off to the side and shows his compassion for the people. “Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?” he asks.
But as usual, he is also looking for a teaching moment. John tells us in the next verse that he only asked this to test his disciples, because he “already had in mind what he was going to do.” (verse 6)
Phillip bemoans the fact that they couldn’t afford to buy food for all these people, even if they had eight months’ worth of wages, but Andrew, Peter’s brother, at least tries to fix the problem. He canvasses the crowd and finds one boy and his lunch pail containing five small barley loaves and two small fish.
That’s when Jesus performs his miracle. He gets the disciples to settle the people down, gives thanks for the food, then hands out the bread and fish to the people so that everyone gets “as much as they wanted.” (v. 11) When the disciples gather up the leftovers, they have twelve baskets full – overflowing abundance.
Jonathan asked in his sermon: “Do we trust God with our lunch pail?”
Do we trust God with our finances, time, talent, or patience? How often do we whine like Philip about what we don’t have? Do we constantly ask for more?
Or do we bring what little we have to Jesus in order for him to bless it?
My amaryllis bulb reminds me that great things can come from our smallest efforts. When I feel that I don’t have much to offer, or when I am tired and discouraged, I need to give it over to God. I need to give him what energy and time that I have, no matter how seemingly insignificant.
Then I need to stand back and wait for the miracle to happen. Like the flowers that continue to come from my amaryllis bulb, we never know what abundance God is waiting to give us.
Under the Magnolia Tree 