Broken Abundance
Date: August 7th, 2022
[Not For Sale]
Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke them. —Luke 9:17
Liz spoke about the miracle of the loaves and the fish which is actually one of only two miracles recorded in all four gospels–the other is the resurrection. In this painting you also find both. The story has a beautiful moment where a little boy gives his lunch of bread and fish to Jesus who multiplies it to feed 5000 people with enough left over to fill 12 baskets.
I stood waiting a good 30 minutes, but when I got the basic image in my mind for this painting I thought, ‘How am I going to pull this off?’ Like when Jesus told the disciples, “...give them something to eat,” and they asked, ‘Huh? How?’ But, this was exactly what Jesus wanted–for the disciples to come to the end of themselves–to go beyond their own resources. Jesus was showing us who he was: a man without any resources of his own…a man who “looked up to heaven” for his supply…a man who completely em–bodied God. Jesus modeled this process of receiving infinite compassion from his Father, then lavishing that compassion on us. Liz talked about going through a season of loss this summer…coming to the end of herself. Yet, she still went to a retreat for teen moms where Liz’s heart was moved when she saw a mom sitting alone in pain. Liz went to talk to her, giving her the understanding that comes from brokenness…a new hope sprang up from this moment…like the fish jumping from the water.
The final element of the painting comes to me after the service ends…a fish jumps into the little girl’s arms and she holds it in awe thinking, ‘Wow! I want to share this with my family, my friends, with anyone who’s hungry…there’s more here than I can ever finish.’ Jesus comes to the end of his human self again and again until he breaks his entire body on a tree…freeing him to give to her, and to each of us, the full abundance of God’s grace and compassion. Finally, realizing we've been sourced with this endless-oceans-supply of 'fish' we jump into our delivery truck on route to eight billion hungry people.