Prayer: Jesus, you know us so well. You know what we need and you provide. You prepare us, so we may accept your gifts of love, and you wait with patience for us to understand the depths of your generosity. Thank you, Abba. Amen.
Reading: 2 Kings 4: 42-44 (Click to read text) Stop and GROW: After reading the text, discuss/ponder the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's Book of Faith questions, which are part of Camp Mount Luther's GROW Time with campers. QUESTION 1: What scares, confuses, challenges, or doesn’t make sense to me in this text? QUESTION 2: What delights me in this text or is my favorite part of the story? QUESTION 3: What stories or memories does this text stir in me? QUESTION 4: What is God up to in this text? Reflection: “I did it first!” “No, I was first!” Funny how when I read this passage – mind you, as a Lutheran, something I read every three years – I forgot that God uses Elisha to perform a very similar miracle using bread to feed a multitude of people. But the Jews in Jesus’ time would likely have known this story well. When they heard how Jesus of Nazareth was able to feed not just hundreds but thousands and with fish as well as with bread, the portent of the miracle could not have been lost to them. Here, then, was another man of God, someone to listen to, someone who would take care of the people’s needs. We know that Jesus was not simply a prophet but God’s own son, and the nourishment He offered went far beyond filling one’s stomach. He is the Bread of Life. Yet I can’t help think of two kiddos whom I am watching this summer during the day. At six years old, to them everything is a competition and when someone compliments one on a deed, the other is quick to pipe up that he or she “did it first.” “I lost my tooth first!” “I can read a whole book through.” “I helped make dinner.” I shall make a point of sharing this Bible story – and that of Jesus – with them tonight, to remind them that doing a wondrous and important thing is just as wondrous and important whether you were first or not, so long as you do it for the right reasons. Thank God for Jesus and for the miraculous predecessors He sent to prepare the way for Him. --Heather LeBlanc
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