Investing Ourselves

³⁵ Late in the day, his disciples came to him and said, “This is an isolated place, and it’s already late in the day. ³⁶ Send them away so that they can go to the surrounding countryside and villages and buy something to eat for themselves.” ³⁷ He replied, “You give them something to eat.” But they said to him, “Should we go off and buy bread worth almost eight months’ pay and give it to them to eat?” ³⁸ He said to them, “How much bread do you have? Take a look.” After checking, they said, “Five loaves of bread and two fish.” ³⁹ He directed the disciples to seat all the people in groups as though they were having a banquet on the green grass. ⁴⁰ They sat down in groups of hundreds and fifties. ⁴¹ He took the five loaves and the two fish, looked up to heaven, blessed them, broke the loaves into pieces, and gave them to his disciples to set before the people. He also divided the two fish among them all. ⁴² Everyone ate until they were full. ⁴³ They filled twelve baskets with the leftover pieces of bread and fish. ⁴⁴ About five thousand had eaten.