The biggest lie we have been told for centuries is that there is not enough to go around. Not enough jobs, enough food, enough land, enough love – and that others want to take what little we have. Feeding our insecurities creates fear, in-fighting, and racial and gender violence. It keeps us fighting each other instead of those who are benefiting from our fear.

I’m not a theist anymore, but I was raised Southern Baptist and am a seminary grad. One of my favorite classes was Biblical exegesis — studying what the text really says as opposed to what others may have told you it says (and means). My view on the loaves and fishes miracle story is that it wasn’t about Jesus creating more food. It was about about him opening people’s minds and changing their shared perception that there wasn’t enough for everyone.

The Bible never says Jesus created more loaves and fishes. “Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people.”

The disciples are the ones who said there wasn’t enough. Jesus just held the food up to God and then gave it to his followers to distribute. The assumption has always been that he created more food. But it is just as logical there was always enough food. The disciples just couldn’t see it until God opened their eyes.