But Jesus said to them, "There's no need to send them away.

You give them something to eat."

Matthew 14:16 CEB

Jesus looked on the crowd with compassion (see v14).

Even though he was wanting time alone, processing the death of John the Baptist. 

The disciples were seeing the crowd as the problem and wanted to send them away.

Jesus saw the lack of food as the problem and saw the people through the lens of compassion.

I'm so easily with the disciples, "them, they, those people are the problem", and I value problem solving so fixing it seems easy - send them away to find their own food.

But Jesus looks through the lens of compassion, and unlike my compassion, his never wavers or seems to get tired or overwhelmed. 

Jesus asks his disciples to change their stance towards the crowd and to find a different solution, and this one was going to need something supernatural, something beyond what the disciples could see. 

Whether there's a miracle or not, Jesus invitation to us is to follow him, to look with compassion, and not to create distance, but connection.

And food is his means.

Look with compassion,  and share your kai.

Seems simple.

#wordsofJesus

#redletterBible

#seewithcompassion

#shareourkai