Often when checking in to my motel, they would offer the comfort of a warm cookie. They are inviting us to enjoy and be comforted, ensuring our approval and loyalty. I must admit that the cookie caught all of my attention, and my approval and loyalty. How quickly I was drawn to the gift and not the giver. The gift is a blessing, but my faithfulness needed to be given to the giver of the gift.

In this story being told here in John 6, we have Jesus giving the gift of a free meal, and this was not a small meal but one that fed thousands. Those who received this meal began to search for Jesus when they lost sight of him; they wanted more of what Jesus could provide for them. Just like I was hoping for more of those cookies to be offered. Those in the crowd searching for Jesus were not sure where he had gone, but they realised his disciples had left for the other side of the lake in a boat; most likely to go to Capernaum. So, that is where they went and that is where they found him. Again, he was teaching God’s word of hope; he was always about doing the Father’s work.

When the crowd wanted to know how he got there without them knowing, the first reaction from Jesus was to tell them that they did not fully understand what they had experienced in those miraculous signs. They saw a great meal and someone who might be willing to teach them how to do the things he did. Yes, he was their new best friend, but for all the wrong reasons. Jesus was more than happy to care for their needs, as God is always willing to care for ours, but they really did not understand what he was trying to teach them. They looked right past the miracle, and the one performing the miracle, and just looked at it as some everyday provision that they wanted a part of. They did not understand that the reason Jesus could do these things was because he was under the authority of the Almighty Father in heaven; he was his Son who had come to save them from themselves and the evil one’s tricks. He came to do more than feed them, he came to gift them with salvation.

It is not wrong to be concerned about our everyday needs, God fully knows that we need them, but Jesus wanted them to look past all of that to, what he, Jesus, could and would provide for them, that was lasting and eternal. God has something much grander in mind than we often perceive. Unlike our daily needs that we restore over and over again, Jesus offered salvation and eternal life with his Father in heaven. They did not quite comprehend that the gift was standing before them. Not only has God given us life and all the things we need to live it, he has given us a future filled with good things, but the greatest gift we have is God himself and our relationship with him.

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