A scourging week.

The earth laid bare around me, scorched clean by holy fire.

Standing in the smoldering field of what remains, I ask God, “What comes next?”

And he reminds me of a little boy on a Galilean hillside,

Five fish and two loaves in his hands.

“What do you have?” Christ asks.

The boy holds up his meager meal, everything he has offered toward the Lord.

Too little to feed the hungry crowd,

Empty stomachs churn and mouths beg bread.

Smiling, Christ takes that which is offered and multiplies it until all are fed

And full

And satisfied.

Now, it is me to whom Christ speaks,

“What do you have?”

And I hold up my meager gifts,

Too little to till and water and heal the fire-ravaged earth on which I stand.

Yet he promises to multiply.

When placed in God’s hands, there is always enough.

Expect a miracle.

“In my distress I called upon the LORD, And cried to my God for help; He heard my voice out of His temple, And my cry for help before Him came into His ears,” Psalm 18:6.