Two miracles: One involves Elisha the prophet, the other Jesus, on two occasions.
Let us start with Elisha. A widow is in desperate need and can’t pay her bills. A creditor is coming to take her two sons to work for him and this is the question Elisha asks:
‘ What do you have?’
The widow: ‘ Nothing! Except a small jar of oil.’
Elisha: ‘ Borrow all the vessels you can from your neighbours, shut your door and pour oil from your jar.’
Her sons went knocking at the neighbours’ doors and the floor of the room was soon covered with vessels of different sizes and shapes. She shut the door and poured. The oil kept coming.
When done she told Elisha. His next instruction was: ‘ sell it and pay your debts then you and your sons live on the rest.’
A simple question ‘ What do you have?’
Here again in these miracles Jesus works with what a person gives Him.
In these two miricals of Jesus two different Greek words are used for basket. Let us look at this first:
Kophinos – A relatively small, rigid wicker basket with a narrow neck, often shaped like a pitcher. It was used to carry ritually clean food when travelling.
Spuris: A large, flexible hamper or mat- basket woven from reeds or cords. Large enough to hold provisions for a long journey, or even a person. This is the type used by apostle Paul when escaping from Dasmascus. They lowered him over the walls in this strong big basket.
Jesus feeds 5,000 men, plus women and children, from five small barley loaves and two small fish. The disciples picked up 12 Kophinos of leftovers.
Jesus on another occasion feeds 4,000 men, plus woman and children, from 7 loaves of bread and a few small fish. The disciples pick up 7 Spuris of left overs.
Both crowds were fed well with more than enough. Each were fed by an individual giving what they had to Jesus.
The July garden has also given; jars of fresh foliage and a basket. I have dried small groups of stems and slowly over two or so weeks made a full basket of flowers. It is the basket I bought in Montpelier.( A beautiful city where… the story is in one of my first posts travelling through France.) Montpellier visit
Here is a jar of mint in flower, lavender not yet dry and straw flowers all freshly picked.
And now for the basket:
The seed heads: foxgloves, chives,saxophage.
The dried flowers: Shasta daisies,strawflowers, yarrow.
A basket of ‘ more than enough’.
Here are some photographs of the individual groups and under each I expand on ‘ more than enough.’
You are more than enough!
The person has all the right qualities and does not need to change. They are special and with purpose.
‘You have done more than enough.’
Positive and then negative as well. It can mean stop interfering!
Some other words for ‘more than enough’: abundant, ample, sufficient, profuse, copious, plentiful, prolific…
A full basket of July flowers 2026.
Take care,
Sandy 🙂