Day 5: Jesus gives the disciples a night off

This is the view from my rocking chair.  It means i made it to the end of the day and I'm rocking while the kids are listening to Audiobooks. I'm trying to figure out what to write about.  I've been exhausted all day,  so I searched verses on tiredness for this blog post.  To my amusement, one of the first verses that popped up was this section from the story of the feeding of the 5,000

30 The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to him all they had done and taught. 31 Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.”

32 So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place. 33 But many who saw them leaving recognized them and ran on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them. 34 When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things.

I never paid attention to the beginning before.  Picture it.  A long day.  Out with Jesus.  Everyone had split up and were managing different things. They gather up to debrief and Jesus notices how tired they are.  So he sneaks them away into a boat to get a quiet moment. The disciples sink into their seats and sigh out that deep breath.  Finally,  off duty.

But as they are drifting and talking,  Jesus looks out of the corner of his eye and sees people on the edge of the lake running ahead. I can almost hear him rolling his eyes and also I see his heart.  There's no choice but to minister to the crowd.  But the logistics aren't great.  Disciples are exhausted.  There's a huge crowd gathered far from town.  Kids are going to start getting hungry and crying.  

Then, in the midst of teaching,  Jesus does a miracle.  I had always thought that he feed the 5,000 because of his concern for the crowd.  But now seeing the setup... he did it maybe even more out of his concern for his disciples. In the midst of their work,  he sees they need down time and so he gives them a gift and takes care of dinner for everyone.  

In my tiredness,  this speaks to me.  Even in the mundane duty of working out my call,  there may be moments where God meets me in my tiredness and pulls up a little boat and takes me away to a quiet place. ... and takes care of dinner so I can take the night off.

How might I allow Jesus to multiply the fish and bread so that we can all just sit and enjoy the evening breeze? I think I'll sleep on it.