Matthew 15:32-39

Matthew 15:32-39 
English Standard Version (ESV)

  How many times do you have to see a magic trick before you believe that the magician is capable of almost anything?  I love going to baseball games, especially Reds games right now -- watching Joey Votto hit is incredible.  Throughout his career, he has consistently demonstrated an ability to be a remarkable hitter.  I expect him to hit, because he's done so over the years time and time again.  I'm surprised when he doesn't (he hit a grand slam yesterday in case you're curious).
  With these miraculous feedings, there was more than one.  Jesus regularly performed miracles, and there are several documented instances of him feeding oversize crowds with undersized portions. 
  Yet, when presented with the question of how the crowd was going to be fed, the disciples had no idea.  They didn't have any suggestions about where to get food for such a crowd, despite having witnessed Jesus miraculously feeding crowds beforehand.  I don't know if they forgot or their minds were so focused on what they earthly knew to be true about the inability of 7 loaves to feed over 5,000 people, but they couldn't imagine what Jesus would do next, despite having seen Jesus do the unexpected before. 
  And so here we are.  I don't know what's going on in your life, but I'm willing to be there are some obstacles in your life.  They could be self-created, or perhaps they have tumbled off some distant cliff and landed directly in your path.  Either way, they are before you, blocking your way forward, and you're focused on that obstacle.  You don't know of a way around or through it.  If you're like me, you become so focused on the obstacle that you can't think of anything else.  You dwell and dwell and dwell on it, until it's all you're thinking about, and your spirit grows weary as you neglect everything else to obsess over how you're going to find a way beyond this obstacle.
  Friends, Ephesians 3 reminds us that Jesus can do infinitely more than all we can ask or imagine.  God has a history of knocking down barriers -- for David and Gideon, for Isaiah and Moses, for the New Testament church.  God has consistently shown up and led God's people forward, often in ways they could not have imagined beforehand, even if God had done something similar in history.
  So we read the Bible to learn about how God has worked in the past.  And we trust in God to make a way where there is no way, because he is the Way, the Truth and the Life.  In God, we have a way forward, even if you can't imagine what that is right now.  He's done it before -- he'll do it again.