Running With Mark 51

Day Fifty-One – February 17, 2020  

 

Read:

Mark 8:1-10 New Revised Standard Version

This story is also found in Matthew 15:32-39.

Another day, another miraculous feeding, this time of 4000, with seven baskets of food left over. 

The feeding of the 4000 is important because of where it took place.  The feeding of the 5000 took place near Bethsaida, on the north side of the Sea of Galilee.  This is the Jewish side.  The feeding of the 4000 took place near Decapolis on the south side of the Sea of Galilee.  This was the Gentile side. 

In the feeding of the 5000, there were twelve baskets of food leftover.  Twelve represented the twelve tribes of Israel.  In the feeding of the 4000, there were seven baskets leftover.  In Judaism seven is the number of “completeness” or perfection.  In the creation poem found in Genesis, God creates the world in seven days.

I’m hungry .

Have you ever known hunger?  Not the, “I haven’t had a snack since breakfast and it’s 11:00 am hunger”.  Have you experienced that deep hunger that makes it hard to concentrate? A hunger that can leave you without energy?

At any given time, approximately 9.7% of Minnesota households are experiencing food insecurity.   “If all Minnesotans struggling with food insecurity lived in one place, they’d nearly replace the populations of the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul combined!”[1]  That statistic is staggering and really puts the problem of hunger into terms we can understand. 

Spend a little time learning about food scarcity in Minnesota.  Here are a few websites:

http://www.hungersolutions.org/

https://www.2harvest.org/our-impact/hunger-facts/

https://www.thesheridanstory.org

https://www.joyceuptownfoodshelf.org/

 

How are you being led to help fight hunger and food insecurity in Minnesota?

 

Music:

I Am the Bread of Life – Notre Dame Folk Choir

Let Us Be Bread – sung by children

 

 

Prayer Focus:

  • Those who are hungry

 

Grace and peace,
Pastor Karen Bruins

[1] http://www.hungersolutions.org/data-posts/2017-usda-food-insecurity-data/

 


Leave a Reply