And A Little Child Will Lead Them.

On Sunday, my ten-year old daughter decided that she wanted to pack six individual bags, each containing an apple, a banana, and a baguette for the homeless people I pass on my way to the office.  On Monday, she packed these bags at 6:30 in the morning before school.  After she finished packing, I put my arm around her with pride and said:  "God will bless you for this." She smiled and shook her head, in disagreement or uncertainty.  I said, "Really, He will."  She hugged me with gratitude, the way she would hug God if she could.  I felt like I was really teaching her something here.  You know, that God blesses those who feed the hungry, serve the poor.

But then she taught me.  And God taught me through her.  "Mom," she said, "we should put Scripture in the bags from when Jesus fed the one million people."  I smiled and said, "you mean the five thousand?"  She said: "Whatever." (What this means from a pre-teen is: "do you think he couldn't have fed a million?")  Knowing that story as well as I do, I advised that it was too long to put on an index card, but that I would find something more suitable to include as I rode the train downtown.  (Ok, I didn't really say it with these words, but looking back, I'm afraid that was the tone.)  She shrugged, as if to say "Whatever.  I think the story about feeding the million is best."  As I got on the train, this came to mind: "I am the bread of life..."  Perfect!  That would be perfect.  Short, meaningful, there's bread, but not really bread . . . I was just so proud of myself.  So, I looked in my Bible to find where this was.  Yeah.  Perhaps YOU knew this already, but when did Jesus say this?  Just after he fed the one million (five thousand).

Okay then.
So, I wrote John 6:35 on an index card and put it in each bag.