Matthew 14:13-21
Jesus Feeds the Five Thousand
13 When Jesus heard what had happened, he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place. Hearing of this, the crowds followed him on foot from the towns. 14 When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick.
15 As evening approached, the disciples came to him and said, “This is a remote place, and it’s already getting late. Send the crowds away, so they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food.”
16 Jesus replied, “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.”
17 “We have here only five loaves of bread and two fish,” they answered.
18 “Bring them here to me,” he said. 19 And he directed the people to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people. 20 They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. 21 The number of those who ate was about five thousand men, besides women and children.
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| Provision by Cheryl White Acrylic on Canvas 48" x 36" Sold |
I did two paintings with this theme, and both of them are sold...This one with more blues in the background to the Crawfords and another with more greens to the Dollacks. I continued working with lines coming on and off the canvas and using a palate knife. At the center, the larger than life figure shows Christ holding up the 5 loaves and 2 fish before feeding the thousands of people who had come to hear His teaching. There are 12 disciples each holding up baskets of food that were still left after everyone had eaten. This is important, because it reminds me that God's provision was bountiful, above and beyond their expectations.
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| Loaves and Fishes on Green by Cheryl White Acrylic on Canvas 48" x 36" Sold |
I found this to be true in my own life as well when my husband was on staff with Leaders Shaping Leaders. He was working for a non profit mission agency and 100% of his salary came from donated financial giving. We had two small children and it was a huge leap of faith to really trust that God could and would meet our needs through those years. I am an extremely organized, detail oriented planner, so to trust our future to God in this situation was HUGE to me. God would have to be larger than life in order to provide for our family's needs...and guess what? He was...He is...and He did...above and beyond what we expected.
