Loaves and Fishes

Today on one of the alterno-Mormon Facebook groups, a few people were talking about the numbers of members in the Church, real versus fictional growth/membership numbers, motivations that the Church might have for not telling the whole truth about the history, the Church as an example or anti-example of charity and how that impacts members' donations.  Same old, same old in the alterno-Mormon world.

One person said something related to the discussion, but also about an interpretation of scripture that honestly had never, ever occurred to me before:

One is the fish and loaves model where the Lord simply gives all that He has directly to those in need without reservation/investment. That miracle I believe is founded on the power of a faithful example where the leaders send out all they have and in mimetic acts of faith others pitch in all they have and the baskets refill and refill to overflowing and all are fed.

Mind.  Blown.  (as the kids say)

This idea that the loaves and fishes story wasn't a miracle of heavenly intervention, but instead was a story of Christ's followers following His example of giving everything He had to feed his followers, and continuing to fill the baskets with what little they had is an angle that I had never considered.  I always thought the miracle is that the baskets never emptied because God kept filling them.  I truly love the idea that the baskets never emptied because the people kept filling them.

I wish I had read this before my lesson on building the kingdom of God because it perfectly illustrates how we as individuals have such an important role, and indeed a holy obligation, to care for each other.