God's Story: Jesus Feeds 5000

[0:00]God's story, Jesus feeds 5,000. So part of God's story is about a time Jesus fed a huge crowd of people and it goes like this. A long time ago, Jesus traveled to different cities teaching people about God and doing miracles. A miracle is something amazing that only God can do. Things like turning water into wine, bringing dead people back to life, giving sight to blind people and calming storms. Jesus was always teaching people who God was, how much God loved them, and how to follow him. And wherever Jesus traveled, huge crowds of people would gather to listen to him. Imagine a huge concert or a big stadium full of people, but there were no bleachers or stages or flashing lights, just lots of people who wanted to listen to Jesus. Well, one day, Jesus decided to spend some time alone. His friend and cousin John the Baptist had died, and Jesus was sad. So he got on a boat looking for a quiet place to be alone. But when Jesus came back, a large crowd had gathered. He knew these people needed to hear about God's love for them. So he started to teach the crowd. The Bible says the crowd had 5,000 men in it. We aren't sure exactly how many women and children were there because back then, they weren't always counted. But if they had been counted, and they should have been, it probably would have been closer to 20,000 people. That is a lot of people listening to Jesus teach. The crowd had been listening to Jesus teach for so long that they lost track of time, and started to get hungry. Kids, can you imagine sitting and listening to a teacher all day long, without bathroom breaks, without recess, without a snack, and not getting bored? That must be a really good teacher, and it was. It was Jesus. Anyway, it was getting late. Jesus's closest friends, the disciples, said, send the crowds away. They can go buy food in the villages. But Jesus said, they don't need to go away. You give them something to eat. The disciples were confused. They didn't have enough food to share or enough money to buy food for everyone. But then a boy came up to one of the disciples named Andrew. He was a little kid, and he had five loaves of barley bread and two small fish. Andrew brought the food to Jesus, but he was still confused and asked Jesus how this food could possibly feed everyone. Well, Jesus had a plan. Jesus took the food that the boy shared with them and blessed it. Blessing the food means he gave thanks to God for the food he had provided for them. And then Jesus and the disciples began to pass out the loaves of bread and fish to everyone in the crowd. People began to eat, and eat, and eat, and the food never ran out. Every single person was able to eat until they weren't hungry anymore. And guess what? There were 12 whole baskets of food left over. The little boy's five loaves of bread and two fish had fed all those people and there was still plenty of food left over. It was a miracle. Jesus was human just like us, but he was also God's son. That means he had God's power and could do miracles that only God can do, like feeding thousands of people when there wasn't anywhere near enough food. Every single person in the crowd that day got to see Jesus do an amazing miracle. And we get to see Jesus do miracles, too. And that's a little bit about how Jesus fed thousands of people. So in case you missed it, here's the quick version. Jesus taught crowds of people. People got hungry. There was no food. The disciples didn't know how to feed everyone. A boy had five loaves of bread and two fish. Jesus took the boy's food and blessed it. He fed the entire crowd of people, and there was still food left over. It was a miracle. And that's a part of God's story.