The aged hands grip the bread with quiet desperation

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There is still value in what remains.
And that is the whole lesson in John 6:12, …when they had all had enough to eat, he said to his disciples, “Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted.” ¹³So they gathered them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten.

The big party is over. Everyone has had their fill. Very few care about the behind-the-scenes experience. It is easy to celebrate the miracle and overlook the fragments. Yet, we must ask ourselves an important question: where does the fragment for the next miracle come from?

The fragment for the next miracle

A woman hanged by the thread. No savings. No inheritance.
This was a period when Elijah declared that it would not rain.
To survive the famine, God asked Elijah to relocate to Kerith Brook, east of the Jordan. He was to be fed by ravens. Before long, the brook dried up. Elijah was forced to relocate again (by the word of the Lord). This time, Zarephath, a coastal town belonging to Sidon. Elijah travelled a hundred-plus kilometres for survival. Where would the next meal come from? You know how the story goes. Yes, the poor widow of Zarephath who had nothing except a cruse of oil and a handful of flour. As a quick aside: why didn’t God make water from the brook and continue to sustain Elijah there? We’re left to ponder the answer.
To cut to the chase, it was this little supply that God chose to use as the material for the miracle. The poor widow, her son and Elijah ate and had surplus. That was all God needed.

A boy came to a crusade; about five thousand people sat under the open sky to listen to Jesus. After a long day, everyone was tired and hungry. But the big issue was how much food was enough for this crowd? How much money would be enough to buy food?
In the end, the lad surrendered his five small barley loaves and two small fish to Jesus. It was a fragment compared to what a crowd that large needed. Everyone but Jesus knew it wasn’t enough.
Here are the quick lessons:
1. A boy trusted his meal, barely enough for a dozen people, to Jesus.
2. His little became much in the hands of Jesus.
3. God can use what we have, no matter the size and more.
Everyone has something in hand that God can use: a talent, a resource, a leftover that seems nothing and so on. There is something in hand we always don’t think amounts to much. And yes, it amounts to nothing when kept away from God. So, it’s better given away to God. It may not be enough for your survival, but it may be enough for your next miracle.

Gather up the fragment …that nothing be lost

Every day, we throw away things that still have value.
Some merely because they were not consumed. This is the fate of every leftover. When not consumed or used, it ends up in the trash.
But the leftover tells a story… that God gave us more than enough. That his blessing is abundant. Or that we underutilise what was given us. Abundance — is this not what we have been promised and are asking for? Why then do we waste it? If God has promised us abundance, this means there will always be excess. When we trash them, we suggest to God that we lack the capacity to manage abundance. And perhaps one of the greatest challenges of abundance is learning what to do with what remains.

According to UNEP, globally, more than a billion tonnes of food are wasted every year. In 2022 alone, 1.05 billion tonnes of food were wasted. That is approximately one-fifth of all food available to consumers. Sixty per cent of that food waste came from households. This is a picture of how poorly we manage the resource God has put at our disposal. For every grain of food that gets to our table, a lot has gone into making it: land, water, air, sunlight, labour, energy, money, and time. When we trash it, we put an end to its story. We end its journey and annihilate its purpose.
Sometimes the next chapter of our life begins when we learn to gather the fragments that remain after a disaster or a miracle. And sometimes what remains is enough to begin again.

What remains of you

This goes beyond food. It is about everything God has given us. Jesus taught differently. He said, gather up the fragment… that nothing be lost. Everyone has eaten to their fill. They could go about their business. Jesus said, “Wait, there is more”. The seed for the next miracle is in the leftover. Nobody wanted that. So it’s called leftovers. Jesus said, well, gather up the leftovers; don’t let it make up the statistic of what goes into the trash.

Don’t be ashamed of your leftovers. There is still value in them. Gather them up.
Just to let you know, we’d live with leftovers our whole lives. Our failed experiences, struggles in marriage, turbulent career, declining talent, broken relationship, challenges in child-training, lost opportunities, wasted years, disappointments, mistakes, dreams that did not turn out as planned and difficult seasons. God can make something out of that situation. Nothing that is handed to Him can be lost. He left the ninety-nine sheep (in good care) to look for the one missing. He swept the house till he found the lost coin. In his hands, nothing can be lost. He is a God who searches for what is lost, gathers what remains and restores what others have written off. We should emulate him. We should put every resource(the wood and gold) at our disposal to use.
What has been consumed belongs to the past. What remains is ours for the better. Don’t throw away what you have in your hand just because it seems insignificant. The world calls it waste when it can no longer see the original purpose. God calls it a fragment when He can see what it can become.

The Bible is filled with people whose stories did not end at their lowest point.
Peter denied Jesus; still, he recovered from it.
Mark abandoned Paul and Barnabas on a missionary journey, but later became useful in ministry.
Moses spent years in the wilderness before stepping into his assignment.
David experienced seasons of rejection before becoming king.
Job lost almost everything and yet recovered from what remained.
What remains of you?

Maybe you don’t have everything you once had; You don’t have the strength, opportunity, resources or confidence you once possessed.
But look again. There is still something in your hands.
Gather it.
Give it to God.
And let him decide what it can become.
There is a pending invitation: “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28

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That Nothing be Lost