"Bring them here to Me."

John the Baptist was dead. Herod got caught up in a dance, made a foolish promise, and in order to save his own face, had John the Baptist beheaded. His disciples, the men who had followed him, listened to his teaching, served him - came and got his body, and buried him. Then they went...and told Jesus.

When Jesus heard, He withdrew. He went away by Himself to a lonely place. He wanted to be alone. John the Baptist was dead. This was His cousin, but he was so much more than that. This was the one sent to "prepare His way". This was the one, who, as an infant, still in his mother Elizabeth's womb, leapt for joy at the sound of the voice of Mary, because she was carrying His Lord. This was the one who saw Jesus coming, and told his disciples, "Look - there He is - the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!" This was the one who felt completely unworthy to even untie Jesus' sandals, and yet, because Jesus asked him to, he baptized the Son of God. This was the one who said, "I must decrease, and He must increase." This was the one of whom Jesus said, "Among those born of women there has not arisen anyone greater than John the Baptist." And now, he was dead.

Jesus is fully God, but Jesus is also fully man - and while He lived on this earth, He experienced what we experience. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet wthout sin. (Hebrews 4:15) He got tired and hungry, He got angry, He got frustrated and weary, He got delighted, He got sad, He grieved. And when he heard that John was dead - He wanted to be alone.

He got in a boat to go off by Himself, but the multitude figured out where He was going, and walked there on foot - and when Jesus got out of the boat, they were there waiting for Him. He wanted to be alone. He was hurting, His heart was heavy - He wanted to pray to His Father, by Himself. But when He saw that crowd of people - He felt compassion for them. He didn't tell them to go away. He didn't tell them, "Now is not a good time." He felt compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd - lost sheep. And He taught them many things about the kingdom of God, and He healed their sick. He ministered to them - in the midst of His own grief.

When it got late in the day, His disciples came to Him and urged Him to send the crowd away so they could go into the nearby towns and get something to eat. It had been a long day - they were tired, they knew Jesus was tired and needed some rest, and they knew everyone needed something to eat. It was time to break things up. But Jesus wasn't done, yet. His plans had already been interrupted, He had already been inconvenienced - He spent the day teaching and healing the multitude when He had wanted to be by Himself. Surely He had done enough. His disciples thought so. But something even bigger was coming.

He told His disciples, "The people don't need to go anywhere - you get them something to eat!" I can just imagine the looks on the disciples' faces. "Huh? How are we supposed to do that?" Jesus asked them what they had. They said, "We have here only five loaves and two fish." They must have said that with some frustration, and with the thought that maybe now Jesus would see that they were right to want to send the crowd away. Maybe they thought, "See, Jesus - we've only got one small boy's lunch, and there are thousands of people here. We just can't do it - we cannot feed all these people. Really, Jesus, it's just laughable. Now, why don't You just send them away, and lets go get some rest." That's what I would have thought. Obviously, I don't know what they were thinking - all we know is that they told Jesus what they had, and I guess they figured Jesus could do the math.

But Jesus said, "Bring them here to Me."

Oh, there is such power in those words. It doesn't matter how small the offering, or how great the need. It doesn't matter how impossible the situation looks. When we put what we have into the hands of the Son of God; the hands that created this world; the nail-scarred hands that paid the price for our sins, and redeemed us, and bought us, and made us His own - He turns our tiny, inisignificant offering into a feast for a multitude, with plenty to spare.

Jesus took the bread, and blessed it, and broke it, and gave it to His disciples to pass out amongst the people - and He kept giving, and kept giving, and kept giving - until every single one of those thousands of people were full. And then He told the disciples to go gather up the leftovers - twelve baskets worth!

Jesus wants us to bring what we have to Him. We may think it is insignificant. We may think it is too little to do any good. But it does not matter what we think. If we put it into the Master's hands - He will bless it, and He will use it to fulfill His purposes, with plenty to spare.

And He wants us to not only bring Him our offerings, but He also tells us to bring Him our burdens, our fears, our doubts - the heavy loads we carry. He says, "Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest." He takes the load off our shoulders, and gives us rest in return.

He wants us to bring ourselves to Him.

"If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel's shall save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul? For what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels."

If we will put our very lives in His hands, He will take an insignificant, sinful, weak, pitiful, prideful mess - and make a new creature.

No matter how big or small the offering, no matter how heavy the load, no matter how insignificant the life - Jesus says to us,

"Bring them here to Me."

When we do - amazing things happen.

Now to Him who is able to do exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen. (Ephesians 3:20-21)