"After this Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias. 2 And a large crowd was following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing on the sick. 3 Jesus went up on the mountain, and there he sat down with his disciples. 4 Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand. 5 Lifting up his eyes, then, and seeing that a large crowd was coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?” 6 He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he would do. 7 Philip answered him, “Two hundred denarii[a] worth of bread would not be enough for each of them to get a little.” 8 One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to him, 9 “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they for so many?” 10 Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, about five thousand in number. 11 Jesus then took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated. So also the fish, as much as they wanted. 12 And when they had eaten their fill, he told his disciples, “Gather up the leftover fragments, that nothing may be lost.” 13 So they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves left by those who had eaten. 14 When the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, “This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world!”
For many, the talk of options and futures relative to the stock market is enough to make their eyes roll back in their heads. I’ll try to explain it in terms we can understand. An option is a contract that gives the buyer the right to buy or sell an asset at a specific price on or before a specified date. For example, if you want to buy a house you put up a little money that enables you to control a much larger asset (the value of the home) this gives you the right to buy that house at a specific price if you exercise your ‘option’ by a specific date. You don’t actually have to buy the house in order to control the asset for a certain time. That is called leverage and it is a very powerful financial tool for multiplying money. But it pales in comparison to divine multiplication! Jesus took what was offered, common fish and common bread, and miraculously multiplied it in order to feed the crowd. I am sure that the little boy did not wake up that day open his smart phone and check out the options market of bread and fish and decide to exercise his option. There was nothing in it for him; he simply gave what he had. The boy took what he had, offered it to Jesus and let the Lord multiply it. What can you make available to the Lord? Can you make your time available? Can you make your assets both monetary and non- monetary available? The Lord may allow you to leverage it for the Kingdom of God or he may ask you to hand it over to him for a miraculous multiplication that we may never see. In either case, God will be glorified, the Kingdom will advance, and the Christ-follower will be enriched.