Looking Forward & Backward


Over and over again in life, we stand in the shoes of the disciples in this passage [feeding 5000]: surrounded by human need, faced with a challenge, knowing we do not have the resources, in our own wisdom, wealth, and strength, to meet the need, to stand up to the challenge. This story motivates us to get up out of our comfortable chairs and throw ourselves into offering our resources on behalf of a needy world. It calls us to remember and to anticipate. We are to stand in the story, looking back and looking forward. We are to stand, looking back, re-experiencing who God has been in the past. We are to stand looking ahead with faith in who God will be and what God will do in the future. God’s provision is not a relic of the past, but a reality that under-girds our future.‘ – Alyce McKenzie