Beauty All Around

Today, we look at a very well-known miracle of Jesus as He feeds some hungry followers. This has been taken from John’s account in Chapter six, verses one to fifteen. However, our main focus is verse ten. Jesus said, Have the people sit down. There was plenty of grass in that place, and the men sat down, about five thousand of them.  

As soon as I came to these words, “There was plenty of grass in that place”, something happened inside of me. There was an excited warmth of joy as I began to see spring and green pastures. True, like most of you, I know this miracle and know it well, in my estimation. However, as I was learning and receiving from it, I became as one who never knew it.

O the matchless wonders of our inimitable Master and Teacher! I have marvelled and so will you, at the Beauty He not only brings to our view, but how He places that exact beauty in the un-beautiful, you and me, His hungry sheep.  

Beauty 

There’s beauty all around, but I draw your attention to the beauty of the place for sheep. The place is beautiful for hungry sheep. You see, sheep that are not in need of food, will never appreciate the beauty of the plentiful amount of grass, or green pasture spread out before them. It’s like people who are not hungry and people who are dying with starvation. Put a table before them, a table spread with an abundance of good, rich, nourishing food, and the evidence will be blatantly obvious. The starving, without asking questions will sit and eat sumptuously as invited. Those who are already full, however, will see, but will not appreciate the beauty of the food to their stomachs, as they do not need food. You see, the starving do not see the beauty of the food in their sights only, but in their stomachs, first and foremost.

These people or sheep have followed Shepherd Jesus because, they saw the miraculous signs he had performed on the sick. John 6: 2b.  They have come because they are sick and need a physician. Just as the beauty of green pasture is for the sheep, so too is the beauty of a Healer for the sick. Will you hear this? Jesus is Green Pastures for the sick. I ask you, is that not Beauty to the sick and needy?

Remember, it was Jesus who went up on a mountainside and sat down with His disciples. Jesus never took the crowd of people there, but they followed Him nonetheless, to the place where there was plenty of grass. It is the time of spring, and the beauty of renewal and refreshing are all around. Have you ever thought of this? When Jesus took His disciples on that mountainside, away from it all, it was a time of spring for them, in that it was a time for them to be renewed, reenergized and refreshed. The place is beautiful for the disciples, who have a time of peace and relaxation, with their Shepherd, and Master, though brief, but nonetheless sufficient and rewarding. The place is beautiful for the sheep and the servants of the Shepherd.

The question comes again to you. Through faith in Jesus Christ, will you believe and accept that today is your moment of spring? Your winter’s over and you are in the Beauty of the Place of Jesus, our Green Pasture. You do not have to make green pastures for yourself, in the time of spring. However, be warned! Today is your time of spring and because of the beauty all around, you will be tempted to seek Green Pasture, where it is green alright, but not God-given.

Jesus has gone, where there is, plenty of grass in that place. The people who have followed Jesus, will receive from Him such a green pasture, it will be remembered for life, as that which changed their lives.

Will you also receive, so that the beauty of Jesus will be seen in you? Receive Him. Really receive Him!