Read Matthew 14:13-21 with your family.

The story we read today was so important to the early Christians that it is the only miracle story found in all four Gospels (the Gospel of John usually has different stories). Imagine sitting in that crowd so long ago. Matthew tells us there were 5000 men, plus women and children. So the crowd was probably closer to 10,000.

You would think a meal for that many people would be a banquet, but it was really a simple picnic of foods that everyone ate every day.

Jesus never tries to do miracles or make promises that were too big. He wasn’t showing off his power by bringing in food they had never seen before. He kept it simple, just like he kept his message simple. Feed people… it doesn’t matter what food, so long as the people are full afterwards.

Jesus was not putting on a show, he was simply seeing that people were hungry and asked his closest friends to help feed them.