Let nothing be wasted.

"When they had all had enough to eat, he said to his disciples, "Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted." - John 6:12

Over the course of the last couple of weeks, I have been working my way through the New Testament. Because of this, I have been re-reading parables and stories I have heard dozens of times in sermons, including the feeding of the five thousand. 

Although I have read and heard this story and it shows up in every Gospel, I found something new the other day. Yes, it is super cool and fantastic that Jesus fed all of those people and that is super important in giving us deeper insight into God as our provider, but the part that stuck out to me was Matthew 14:20 ("They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over"). Why? Why did Jesus need left-overs? For some reason, this just bothered me. I could not understand why Jesus who could easily conjure up His own bread would be concerned with left-overs. Couldn't He just make them disappear? 

So, why did Jesus want to collect the left-overs? The good thing about the Gospels is that a lot of the same stories are told in all four, the feeding of the five thousand being one. So, I perused through Mark and Luke. I still found nothing on why these left-overs were collected. Then, I found the verse mentioned above in John ("Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted"). Although this verse shows no indication as to what the left-overs were used for, it does tell me what Jesus thought about the left-overs. 

Jesus knew something that we don't. You see, to get to these left-overs, Jesus had to first break the bread. Like physically, take five different loaves of bread and break them. Then, He fed the people. Then, He told His disciples to go round up the extras. Maybe the extras were all in one spot or maybe they were scattered among the five thousand. We do not know, but He still wanted them gathered. 

Now, for just a second, I want you to think about yourself as the bread. Have you been broken lately? Not just physically, but mentally, emotionally, spiritually, or all at the same time? Maybe you have been hurt by friends, a boyfriend, girlfriend, family members, or even the church (I know these are all so shocking). But, did you ever think that these people aren't really in control of the breaking? If Job in the Old Testament is any indication, sometimes God allows a little breaking. Sometimes He allows us to feel shattered. Sometimes He allows bad things to happen so that He can use us. And, that's okay. It's okay to let God break you. 

But, here is the comfort. In this story, He collects the left-overs, the broken pieces of bread, whether they were all in one spot or scattered throughout. He gathers them, because He says, "Let nothing be wasted." You might be like me. You might be searching for a reason as to why the left-overs need to be collected, but maybe we should focus more on the fact that the need was there regardless of if we understand what the need is. He was not going to let the left-over, broken pieces of bread be wasted. That is our comfort: Jesus will not let anything be wasted. We may not know the reason. We may not understand the reason that twelve basketfuls of broken pieces need to be collected. The point is that with Jesus there is always a reason. He will not let your brokenness be wasted. So, be willing to break. Be willing to say, "God, break me so you can use me." The bread was no good in five whole pieces just as, sometimes, we cannot truly be used until we are vulnerable and broken. 

So, be hopeful. Let yourself be broken for none of the scattered pieces will be wasted.