Matthew 14:20-21
And they did all eat, and were filled: and they took up of the fragments that remained twelve baskets full.  And they that had eaten were about five thousand men, beside women and children.

It didn’t matter who these people were or where they had come from.  Their past didn’t matter, their struggles or hardships.  Their family situation didn’t matter.  Whether they were diseased or healthy didn’t matter.  Man, woman, and child was invited.  None were excluded from the feast.  And surely in that big of a crowd, there were many different kinds of people present, but Jesus turned none of them away, and there were no qualifications to be met except hunger.  None were denied who wanted to partake.

It works the same way when Jesus offers us the bread of life.  It doesn’t matter who we are or where we’ve come from, what struggles we have, the things we’ve done.  All we have to do is take it.  If the emptiness of this world and the fruitlessness of trying to go it alone our way has left us hungry for something that can make a difference, all we have to do is come to Jesus, take what He’s offered to us and go away filled and satisfied.

Maybe we missed out on this great feast in the wilderness.  Maybe we were somehow late to the party, but there’s Jesus with His baskets of fragments waiting for us.  We weren’t there when they passed it around, but surely if we come to Him now and ask for some bread, He will gladly give us our portion.  Or maybe we’ve separated ourselves from Him for a time and find ourselves just now a little hungry.  Wherever we’ve been or however we got there doesn’t matter as long as it is Jesus we are looking to to give us exactly what we need.

And once we’ve come to Jesus that first time and left finally whole and complete, we can come to Him again and again for everything we need.  He has more left over, even after everyone has had their fill, to meet our need the next day and the next.  He has an abundance within Him that will never run out.  He has exactly what we need and enough to sustain us for our entire lives.  He never wants us to go away hungry, so let us gratefully accept this nourishment and strength that comes from Christ alone.