APAD DAY 22 Something Miraculous About Sharing

by Daniel Owino Ogweno
03/12/17
Not For Sale
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—Chapter 4— 

FOR YOU TO SHARE OR DISTRIBUTE:
Things For You to Pass Along

 “Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy; That they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate.”—1Timothy 6:17-18. 

To share is to show that you care, and to care means that you share the attitude of Christ. 

Something Miraculous About Sharing 

On the 11^th June, 2008, we had an interesting experience in our house. We had prepared food the previous day that we ate but didn’t finish. We decided not to cook afresh—we would do with what had remained. It didn’t look much but we knew it would be just about enough for the five of us. 

When we got ready to take the supper, all of us were seated except one—our first born. We rang him on his mobile and told him to come home immediately so that we could take supper together. 

He was with his friends in the neighbourhood. He arrived hardly 5 minutes later—accompanied by two of his friends. It was obvious that the food would not be enough for seven people. We asked his friends if they would take supper with us and hoped that they would decline. It is un-African to ask someone if he is going to take a meal. You’d just begin serving him unless he stops you because he is satisfied. But in the West, it is common to ask if one would join you for a meal. Though this is strange for us but there are some of these practices where one is advised to do as the Romans do when you are in Rome. 

Our son’s friends said that they wouldn’t mind taking supper with us. We thought of cooking afresh but we didn’t have anything that could be fixed that fast. Actually, we were already seated at the table and were in an eating mood—starting a process of cooking would take a lot of time. We spoke some Kiswahili with my wife trying to consult. Our kids, not to mention their Norwegian friends, don’t understand Kiswahili. This meant that we could consult even on things concerning them without them knowing what we are talking about. By the way, we didn’t keep Kiswahili away from them so that we could talk about them without them understanding. We tried our best to teach them our languages but we failed—they were not interested. 

The consultation was more of wondering why it coincided that we had visitation when we didn’t have enough food. The idea of cooking was out of question; telling the friends of our son that they couldn’t eat with us was another out of question issue. 

My wife usually serves the kids but on this day, she asked me to do the serving. I was about to ask her why, but I complied, thinking that maybe she was afraid of getting embarrassed when the food failed to go round. I never considered that she assigned me the job because I had a magic hand. 

I took the serving spoon and set upon the job. Mysteriously, the food went round and it didn’t just go round, we ate and were full—all of us. The kids didn’t even realise that we had had a psychological crisis occasioned by the thought that we had little food. 

This reminds me of the story where Jesus miraculously fed five thousand people, excluding women and children. We shall shortly look at the details of this story below.