Food, miracles and faith

MAY 13—When we piled of the bus to begin a long day of touring, we each grabbed a sack lunch out of a picnic cooler and hurried off to follow the guide. We had places to go and things to see. A few hours later I was eagerly looking forward to our lunch break. A long morning of walking, standing, listening and learning can certainly build up an appetite.

At the appointed hour we scattered into small groups and dispersed into a warren of shops and churches. I joined a few friends at a coffee shop, ordered a big mug and watched the others unpack their bags of pita with cheese and ham, a hardboiled egg, cucumber and fruit. Looking great.

But when I opened my bag, disappointment set in. It was full of little packets of mustard, which obviously should have been distributed among the group. Mustard. Only mustard. It’s a great condiment, but a lousy meal.

We laughed at the situation, and then the miracle began to happen. One friend shared her pita and cucumber. Another couple, who had ordered some food from the coffee shop, unexpectedly received two plates of fries and gave one to me. When two other members of our group wandered by, I happily offered them mustard. They accepted. And, by chance, one of them was carrying an extra lunch no one had claimed from the cooler. My lunch, I guess.

As I returned to my table and shared the most recent episode in the case of the multiplying food, someone asked me to share the secret of this miracle. “It’s simple,” I replied. “It just takes faith … faith like a grain of mustard seed.