I have been thinking a lot lately about a story that many of us have heard at one time or another, the one commonly referred to as The Miracle of the Loaves and the Fishes.   For our Muslim/Hindu/Buddhist/Agnostic/Athiest/Whatever friends, it goes like this:  Jesus Christ is speaking to a large crowd.  The teaching goes long into the day, no one has brought food to eat and everyone’s starving.  A kid steps up and offers to share his basket that has a few fish and a couple loaves of bread in it.  Jesus says to his crew, “Pass the kid’s basket out to the crowd,”  and then turns to the crowd and tells them how the kid is going to feed them all.  Presto!  The kid’s loaves and fishes feed everyone!

When I was ten years old, in a book called The Robe, written by Lloyd C. Douglas (later made into a film starring Richard Burton and Jean Simmons) I read an explanation of this particular miracle that let me understand it, has stuck with me ever since, and has probably never been more relevant than it is today.

The way the author describes the scene, many people in the audience that day had, in fact, brought  food to eat, but, fearful that there wouldn’t be enough to go around, they were loathe to share.  It took the generosity of a child, and Jesus invoking that generosity, to inspire the better nature of the crowd.  When people began sharing their food with strangers, it turned out there was more than enough food for everyone.  And that was the miracle.

I sense a similar ‘psychosis of selfishness’ seizing the economy and keeping it in the doldrums today.  We fear there is too little to go around, when in reality there’s more than enough for everyone.  The turnaround will come when we begin to see and experience the world through the eyes of a child.

When we understand that the measure of our success is not what we have, but what we give.

When we confront our fear in order to discover our potential.

When our faith in what is possible overcomes our fixation on what is prudent.

When we celebrate what is pure and disdain what has been adulterated.

When we see that we are all in this together.

And recognize that what we’re looking for has been here all along.