God's little helpers

I never really liked baking until my son started to get old enough to help. Now it's something fun that we can do together. He loves to help measure and pour in the ingredients, stir, and of course eat the ingredients. I've even had him roll out pie crust. (I fully expect he will master making my mom's apple pie before I do.) Cooking with him always takes longer, it's guaranteed to be a LOT messier, and the finished product might not look quite as "perfect" as I would like it to, but it always tastes the same and it's always 100 times more fun that it would have been doing it myself. I love watching how the simplest thing like pouring in a cup of flour just amazes him, seeing his proud smile when I tell him what a great "stirrer" he is and most of all seeing how much it means to him to just be helping.
 Today's gospel is the story of the loaves and the fishes (Mt 15). It's one of my favorite stories because it's all about God's love being enough for everyone, just like with the story of the wine, it never runs out and it's better than any substitute. But the other thing I like about it is how our God knows us enough to know that just like my 2 1/2 year old, we want to be included. We want to feel important, do a good job and really help. Like so many of the miracles he performed, he made it a joint effort. I'm positive that he didn't NEED any help, just like i don't NEED any help making cookies or pie, but he wants us to be a part of it. How often have we been blessed enough to be used by God to do His work? He's just letting us pour in the flour because He loves seeing how much we enjoy it. Have you ever realized that the wine and the bread the Jesus chose as his body and blood are both things that have to be made by human hands? The grapes and the wheat are grown by God's earth, but to become bread and wine they must be crushed by us. Think there's any symbolism going on there? In order for the sacrament to happen, we must help. God does his part, but he lets us be included to. Not just included, but essential. The sacrament can't happen without human hands helping. It also means, that just as the grapes and the wine have to give all of themselves to be crushed and remade into something new, so do we if we want to be a part of his mission. We have to give our whole lives, which will probably involve crushing and breaking in order to help the way we are called to.  Just remember after the crushing and breaking, there is something so much better than simple grapes and wheat. God does the same with us. If we allow Him to, he will turn us into something so much better, but we have to be willing to let go of what we are now. Can you imagine what it felt like to have contributed the food the day he multiplied the loaves and fish?  You could have skipped all the way home and hardly touched the ground! I would have shouted it to everyone I knew: "He took MY bread and it fed thousands!" I'd still be walking around with a big goofy smile on my face.
We still have the opportunity every day to be a part of the work he does, just like those with food that day, we have to give our all, and trust that much will come back to us in return, especially the joy of being included.
As I was writing this I kept going back to a line in the song "In Me" by Casting Crowns: "How refreshing to know you don't need me, how amazing to know you still want me."

Here's a link to the song if you want to listen. It's a beautiful prayer.
http://youtu.be/0tzWbsiMx9w