Do you know what a diminutive is?
It is a word that has some special letters put at the end of it to show that it means something little. When mother talks about her “laddie” or her “girlie,” she means her dear little lad or her dear little girl, for “laddie” and “girlie” are diminutives.
Well, one day Andrew and the other apostles were with Jesus — it was soon after they had returned from preaching in the cities and villages, and Jesus had gone with them in a boat to a desert place on the other side of the lake so that they might be alone with Him. But they were not alone for long, because a great crowd of people, who had seen the wonderful way in which Jesus healed sick folk, followed Him there.
Even when the day was nearly over, instead of the people going away, still more and more were coming, until the disciples began to get uneasy as to how all these people would manage when it got dark, for there were no shops in that desert place where they could buy food, and no houses to lodge in for the night. They spoke to Jesus about it at last and said, “Send the multitude away, that they may go into the towns and country round about, and lodge, and get victuals: for we are here in a desert place.”
But Jesus said, “They need not depart; give ye them to eat.”
They were really puzzled then, and to try them still further Jesus said to Philip, who was one of them, “Whence shall we buy bread, that these may eat?”
Jesus knew what He was going to do, but He wanted Philip to tell his thoughts about it.
Philip answered, “Two hundred pennyworth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may take a little.” It was as though Philip said, “Why, we should need a mint of money to give them even a little bit each.”
Then Jesus made the disciples find out just how much food they had there without going to buy, and Andrew said, “There is a lad here who has five barley loaves, and two small fishes, but what are they among so many?”
There is no diminutive in English for “little boy,” but there was one in the Greek language, and that is the word used in telling what Andrew said, and the word that meant “little fishes” is used as well.
And then Jesus did what He had meant to do all the time. He took that little boy’s five barley loaves and two little fishes, and with them He fed all those hungry people, and there were five thousand men there besides women and children.
It was only a little boy who had the loaves and there were only five of them, and only two of the little fishes, but they were given up to Jesus, and that made all the difference. It was Jesus who took them in His hands, Jesus who looked up to heaven and blessed them, Jesus who broke them into pieces and gave them to the disciples to set before the people, and so everyone had food and plenty of it, and there was even more than they could eat, for the disciples filled twelve baskets full of the pieces that were left.