Can you imagine the logistics of feeding 4000+ people in the open?

In this incident found in Mark 8:1 – 10 and Matthew 15:32 – 39, a crowd had gathered following Jesus and been with Him for some time now. As the Lord prepared to move on, He openly expressed His concern for their physical wellbeing and condition to His disciples –  “I have compassion on the crowd, because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat. And if I send them away hungry to their homes, they will faint on the way. And some of them have come from far away.”  (Mar 8:2 — Mar 8:3)

The disciples seemed to dismiss the idea of feeding such a multitude citing logistic and financial concerns but for Christ His compassion for the people and the legitimate need they stood in overcame any obstacle that stood in the way of meeting that need. He chose to call upon the miraculous, to initiate the supernatural in order to meet the temporal need these people faced. He determined to do whatever it takes to meet the needs of these people who were on His agenda and faced a legitimate need – even if it meant bypassing the laws of science and nature.

You see the Lord did not care for or was concerned for their spiritual/eternal condition only but their temporal/material one as well. His heart went out to them in their immediate physical condition – exhaustion and fatigue – and proactively (without even being asked to) chose to reach out and address that need before they left Him. He saw they were not in good physical shape to make their journeys back home safely. This was a situation that justified supernatural intervention in order to meet that need for there was no other natural way (as the disciples clearly observed – Mark 8:4) to do so.

In the same manner, Christ is not neglectful or ignorant of our needs – even temporal ones – and will call on the miraculous if need be to meet them. Nature and universe alike are in His hands to engineer and orchestrate as He pleases to meet and satisfy the needs of His chosen ones.

Rest assured, the Lord not only sees all our needs but feels them too – that is what His compassion is all about.

And just as Lord Jesus did not hesitate or shrink back from miraculously providing for the needs of these people who had been with Him on His agenda, neither will He shrink back today from calling on the miraculous to meet the legitimate needs of those who are His and on His agenda – even those needs that are temporal.

The question is do we qualify – are our needs legitimate and are we on His agenda?