The next day, the crowd that remained across the sea
saw that there had been only one boat there,
and that Jesus had not gone along with his disciples in the boat,
but only his disciples had left.
Other boats came from Tiberias
near the place where they had eaten the bread
when the Lord gave thanks.
When the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there,
they themselves got into boats
and came to Capernaum looking for Jesus.
And when they found him across the sea they said to him,
“Rabbi, when did you get here?”
Jesus answered them and said,
“Amen, amen, I say to you, you are looking for me
not because you saw signs
but because you ate the loaves and were filled.
Do not work for food that perishes
but for the food that endures for eternal life,
which the Son of Man will give you.
For on him the Father, God, has set his seal.”
So they said to him,
“What can we do to accomplish the works of God?”
Jesus answered and said to them,
“This is the work of God, that you believe in the one he sent.” Jn 6:22-29

I took a few days off. I needed to have that time with my family, because they are the most important things to me here on Earth. Having them in my life has been a blessing, everyday, even when I can not see the actual blessings in front of me. This weekend was all about spending time with them.

The scene from today’s Gospel reading is set right after the miracle of feeding the five thousand. The glorious story where Jesus took the bread and fish and multiplied it. How amazing that work must have been, and how excited the crowd must have been after watching this miracle unfold for them. None of them went hungry. I can only image them crowd at that point, becoming believers at that instant. Then, I can only imaging the crowd just wanting to be with Jesus, to the point of stalking him to the next city. They had to really search, there was no social media back then. Jesus could not check into Capernaum, as a status update of the day.

After finding him, how different and perplexed they must have been when he told them not to work for food that perishes? In that moment, what Jesus was saying must have been mystifying to those around Him. Today, we have the luxury of knowing the story, but at that moment, the people were just trying to figure it out. They were in the middle of it all, slightly confused, and here was Jesus, asking them just to believe in the one that God sent. I can only imaging the difficulty that it would have been to have faith in Jesus at that time.

Fast forward to today, how often do we live in the middle of the story, and find it difficult to believe, or understand the message that God is trying to convey to us. We have to make it a point to take steps out of our daily lives and really ask God to help us understand the messages that he is trying to give us, in the moments that we are living in. We are often so blinded by the situation, that we can miss the simple message, and believe in the fact that God is with us, and he is trying to move us into the places that we are being called to.  I pray that today I will receive the messages he is trying to send me, as I want to be a better believer.