This is a mosaic from the floor of a church on the Sea of Galilee called The Church of the Multiplication of the Fish and Loaves.
The church was built to mark the traditional site of Jesus’ miracle of feeding 5,000 people with just two fish and five loaves of bread.
When I asked the nun on duty that day if I could walk behind the rope protecting the mosaic and take a picture close up, she asked, “Are you a priest?”
I smiled and said, “Kinda.”
She laughed and motioned for me to come forward.
FYI – for some reason, women over 80 (especially nuns), think I’m incredibly hot.
I knew this, so I used my George-Clooney-good-looks-mesmerizing-super-powers on her, left all the tourists behind at the back of the church, walked to the mosaic tile floor, and snapped a few pictures.
I’m glad I did that.
Ever since then, whenever I need Jesus to answer a prayer, I scroll back to this photo on my phone.
Looking at it reminds me that nothing is too mundane or small for us to pray for.
The 5,000 hungry people listening to Jesus that day didn’t need much and would have survived just fine walking home famished.
But Jesus noticed.
He cared.
He saw their small, every day need and wanted to meet it.
And scripture tells us he wants to do with you and me. He wants to give us our daily “bread.”
We often confuse ourselves about why Jesus answers prayer.
Are we holy enough? Got our stuff together? Got enough streaks of consistently good days under our belts without blowing it to even consider approaching Him with a request?
Please.
You and I could string together a lifetime of consecutive “good days” and we still wouldn’t be good enough to get Jesus to respond.
The great spiritual writer Watchman Nee said, “It is not a matter of how many loaves we have in our hands, but whether or not God has blessed them.”
Jesus answers our prayers – not because of who we are – but because of who He is.
He is kind.
And compassionate.
And that hasn’t changed.
You know that, right?
Sign up HERE to get my articles delivered straight to your inbox.