25 août 2024
Martial KOUNOU

“Jesus then took the loaves (…). He did the same with the fish” John 6:11
By a very passing road, with a guitar in his hand, a beggar was sitting in front of a bowl in which he expected passers-by to throw some coins. Nobody seemed to notice him, let alone think of giving him alms. Suddenly, a man stopped in front of him. Filled with hope, the beggar looked up to him thinking that at least that one had taken notice of him and was willing to support him. Instead, the man looked at our beggar with a nice smile and asked “Oh, you have a nice guitar. Would you mind if I get a closer look at it, please?”. That was not what the beggar was expecting. However, the request was so politely and well-made that he could only answer positively. With some reluctancy though, the beggar handed over his guitar to that stranger, not knowing what the man’s genuine interest in the guitar was.
Thanking him kindly, the man took the guitar, adjusted it and started drawing some interesting musical notes from it. The quality of the music soon compelled passers-by to stop and, in a bid to encourage the player, some of them brought their wallets out, removed some bank notes which they put in the beggar’s bowl. A few minutes after, the bowl which was almost empty, got filled! The inquisitive frown face of the beggar gave way to a smiling one.
Brothers and sisters, please allow me at this junction to ask you this question: who is holding your guitar? In other words, to whom have you entrusted your life? Is it in your own hand and therefore yielding results below its potential or have you already handed it fully to Jesus to see it valued beyond anything you ever imagined? You must have noticed that in the case of the guitar, so long as the beggar was jealously holding it, the outcome was near to naught. But, no sooner had he handed the same guitar that looked so useless and so unproductive into the right pair of hands that the story change completely.
Do you remember that in the story of fish and bread multiplication in John 6:1-15, as long as the 5 small barley loaves of bread and the 2 small fish were with the boy, they hardly could suffice to feed a household? But the moment Jesus took hold of them, they fed thousands of people. Give him that guitar now.