Reflections - Leftovers

I just happened to be eating leftover Kraft mac & cheese as I read through the scripture passages for this week.  The Gospel story is from John and it's this Gospel writer's version of the familiar story of Jesus feeding the 5,000.  This is one of the stories about Jesus that is written about in all four of the Gospels.

Here's what I am thinking about this week:  What did they do with the leftovers?

Read John 6: 1-21

Jesus and the disciples cross the Sea of Galilee and when they get to the other side they find that a large crowd has gathered. People had been listening to him teach and watching him heal people and they wanted to be near him.  Jesus and the disciples went up to a flat place on the mountain and looked at all the people that were gathering.  This version from John says that Jesus asks Philip
"Where are we going to buy the bread for these people to eat?"  Now, I am pretty sure Jesus was was trying to see if Philip could come up with the plan.  I mean - we know from Jesus' previous miracles that he would be able to figure this out.  Andrew points Jesus in the direction of young man who has five loaves of bread and two fish - but they all know that won't be enough.  The Gospel tells us Jesus thanks God for the food and uses that small amount of food to miraculously feed the crowd. And not only was there enough, but there were leftovers.   The people that gathered to be near Jesus had gotten exactly what they came for. When they saw the leftover food and realized that everyone had eaten, they saw that this was a sign - a miracle  - and they began to whisper to one another that this was surely "the prophet of God come to the world."

So about those leftovers...
The passage says that Jesus instructs the disciples to "Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted."   They gathered up twelve baskets.
The scripture doesn't say what they actually do with the leftovers.  We can guess that they used them to feed themselves and others who were hungry while they were on their journeys.

I am thinking this week about sharing and wasting our many blessings.  Jesus ordered the leftovers to be gathered so that nothing would be wasted.  So many people have so little, but like the young man in the story they are willing to share what they have.  Also, there are also so many people that are blessed with much more than they need.   This story about Jesus reminds me that God is calling us to do both: Share what we have with other who are in need. And, definitely don't waste leftovers.