But here on this mountain, God-of-the-Angel-Armies will throw a feast for all the people of the world, a feast of the finest foods, a feast with vintage wines, a feast of seven courses, a feast lavish with gourmet desserts. And here on this mountain, God will banish the pall of doom hanging over all peoples, the shadow of doom darkening all nations. Yes, he’ll banish death forever. Isaiah 25: 6-8 (MSG)
I recently volunteered alongside my daughter, Brooke, at the Food Bank of central and eastern North Carolina. I humbly admit I was unfamiliar with the Food Bank organization, so I had no idea what I would do during my four-hour time slot. I have since learned that the Food Bank is an affiliate of Feeding America, the nation’s leading domestic hunger-relief charity. The massive, completely self-reliant facility was built to withstand a category-five hurricane, and I can honestly say that I have never seen anything that compares to it. The gigantic refrigeration and freezers allow them to distribute over 97,000,000 pounds of food yearly. That equates to over 80,000,000 meals to those in need. The Food Bank partners with an average of 700 food pantries, shelters, soup kitchens, and group homes. They depend heavily on volunteers to help prep and prepare the food, load it into disposable food containers, vacuum seal, box, and store it until ready to be distributed. At any one time, no less than 10,000 meals are in storage, ready for distribution. Their vision statement simply says, “No one goes hungry.”
Last week, I assisted with sealing and boxing the food containers. It was interesting to see the variety of meals, but I also noticed that the portion size was very modest. It was about the size of your typical “Lean Cuisine” frozen meal. And I wondered if that was enough to make sure that the recipient would not still be hungry. Would it be enough food to satisfy their hunger? In the book of Mark, Jesus had the opportunity to feed many people with only a little bit of food. He had thousands of hungry mouths to feed with only five loaves of bread and two fish (Mark 6:35-44). “Then he gave them to his disciples to set before the people. He also divided the two fish among them all. They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces of bread and fish.” Not only were the people no longer hungry, but there were leftovers! This miracle reveals many Biblical truths, but the one we don’t often recognize is an important aspect of God’s character: He always gives in abundance!
We often give God our leftovers. Our leftover time, our leftover resources, our leftover minds and bodies after the day has physically and mentally drained us. But God only gives in abundance. He doesn’t supply just barely what we need and call it a day. He goes over and above, sometimes beyond anything we can imagine. His mercy abounds, His love is never-ending, His grace is unfathomable.
And in the most important demonstration of His abundance, God went so far as to send his Son to earth as a lowly human, to die on a cross to redeem rebellious, undeserving humanity. His gracious abundance provides us a pathway to eternity to live with Him forever. A place where hunger will not exist. And that’s your Tuesday Tidbit.