It was the greatest day of my life.
I was only six years old. Nobody took me seriously. I wanted to be just like my dad – to take care of my family. But whenever he would take me fishing, he would catch so many fish – and I wouldn’t catch any. My dad would pat me on the head and say, “Well, you tried hard. Maybe next time you’ll catch one.” It made me feel like a total failure.
Until the greatest day of my life.
My dad took me fishing early that morning. I was determined. I would refuse to leave the lake without a fresh-caught fish.
And then it happened. I felt a bite.
I pulled in the line as fast as I could. And there it was! A tiny little guy – too small to eat, my dad said. But I kept it anyway. It was my trophy for years of hard work. I tossed my line in again, and it happened again! This fish was a bit bigger, but not much. Still too small to eat.
I carried one fish in each hand as we walked home, skipping and laughing and carrying on. My dad laughed. I usually hated when he did that – it made me feel like he didn’t take me seriously. But today I didn’t care. It was the greatest day of my life.
As soon as we got home, we had to get ready to leave again. There was some speaker that my mom wanted to go listen to. She was into that sort of thing. I didn’t want to go –listening to people talk is boring. But since I had to go along, I decided I’d take care of my family and pack a lunch! As my mom hastily steered us out the door, I grabbed five small barley loaves and my two, precious fish.
As we were walking, my dad noticed the lunch I was bringing along. He laughed, but I tried not to care. I had finally caught food for my family. It was the greatest day of my life.
We arrived at a big grassy hill where thousands of people like us had gathered. The moms and dads looked eager to hear the speaker. The kids looked bored. I didn’t really hear anything the speaker said. He was boring. So I just gazed at my fish while I sat on the grass. They were beautiful. I dozed off, and dreamed of catching an even bigger fish next time.
“Do you have any food?”
The question jarred me awake. It was one of the speaker’s friends. I rubbed my eyes as my mom said, “Well, my son has two fish and five loaves.” The man said, “That’s better than nothing.”
I grabbed my fish and loaves as he grabbed my wrist and led me to the front of the crowd, where the speaker was. He was ordinary-looking. Looked a lot like my dad, actually. Except for his eyes. His eyes didn’t laugh. When he looked at me, I felt like he trusted me. Like he took me seriously.
“Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?” said the man who had taken me to the speaker. All the speaker said in response was, “Have the people sit down.”
Then he leaned down to me and placed his hand on my shoulder. He looked me in the eye and asked, “Will you help me feed these people?”
I didn’t know what to say. I nodded. He smiled at me – not a mocking smile, but a sincere smile. A smile like you’d give your equal.
Then he took my five loaves and my two small fish – my fish too small for eating – and he passed them out.
I don’t know how he did it, but he gave bread and fish to every person there. Every person! And there were thousands!
And he used my fish to feed them!
John 6
Neglected Word 