“Another basket!” one of the disciples called out and it was produced.

Jesus repeated the process with a fish. Then a loaf. Then a fish

There seemed to be no end. Every stomach was filled. Twelve baskets were leftover.

No chocolate bunnies. No marshmallow peeps. Only loaves and fish. How, then, is the little boy’s lunch the first Easter basket?

Several ways:

Transformation. The lunch changed. It fed a multitude. Like the Carpenter who became the Foundation. Like the Crucified who became the Savior. Like the Dead Man who became the Resurrection and the Life.

Transformed like a sinner I know personally who was headed for destruction but who now — miraculously — has eternal life.

A miracle is repeated. Some time later, Jesus did this miracle again. And He does it today The bread, the meal of a former Galilean Boy who gave up His life for us, continues to feed the multitudes.

On the night He was betrayed, He took bread, gave thanks, and broke it.

As you take a wafer from the communion basket, a bit of matzo from a silvered tray, you join across time with the 5000 on a sun-drenched hillside by the Sea, the 12 in the Upper Room, and the untold multitudes who — over the last 2000 years — have eaten at the Lord’s table; you join across space with your brothers and sisters the world over who share your faith.

I’ll meet you at the Easter basket.

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Rebekah Montgomery is the editor of Right to the Heart of Women e-zine, a publisher at Jubilant Press, and the author of numerous books on spiritual growth. She can be contacted for comments or speaking engagements at rebekahmontgomery.com.