Even though there’s no maternal element mentioned, the Bible story about the loaves and fishes has always made me think of mothers.
I’ve never had a problem believing the small lunch was multiplied to feed thousands, but what’s difficult to accept is that out of all the people at the gathering that day, the only one to remember to bring his lunch was a little boy.
In defense, I guess the Bible only says the boy “had” the lunch. It didn’t say he “remembered” his lunch. That makes more sense, because you see, I’ve raised two boys, and I can’t begin to count the number of times they forgot their lunch, homework or field trip permission slip. One of them got in the car after school and told me he had to keep his jacket on all day because he’d forgotten to put a shirt on that morning.
What granny said was true, “If their heads weren’t attached to their necks, they’d walk off and forget those too.”
But after thinking about this story I first heard in my 3-year-old Sunday School class, I think the author may have omitted the key figure. The one who really saved the day, wasn’t the little boy who shared his lunch. Instead, the real hero (other than The Savior, of course), had to be none other than . . . the boy’s mother. Don’t you think she was the one who ran after this New Testament kid and hollered, “Hey, Billy-Jim! Come back here right now! You forgot your fish!”
“Fish again?” he whined. “You know I’m so tired of fish! Everyone else gets to eat lamb and fig kabobs.”
“Young man, you know your father works hard on his boat all day catching these fish. You should be ashamed to complain like you do.”
So, off Billy-Jim went, hanging his head low, kicking a rock, and swinging his little Ten Commandments lunch box with Charlton Heston on the side. Later in the day, when the . . . to finish the story at AL.com, click HERE.