I’ve been fortunate to spend time this summer catching up with family and friends. After we caught up on all the new stuff, the old stories came out. You probably have similar ones – family favorites that are told every time everyone’s together. Everyone listening could finish the story, and yet they’re still told again and again with great delight.
There’s a family story I keep coming back to found in John 6. It’s that time Jesus took the meager offering of one young boy and multiplied it to feed a crowd. The part that’s stuck with me lately happened as the meal drew to a close. John describes it this way: “After everyone was full, Jesus told his disciples, “Now gather the leftovers, so that nothing is wasted” (6:12). He goes on to record that there were 12 baskets of leftovers from what started out as five little loaves.
Now that’s pretty impressive. But there are three little words in the middle that hint at an even bigger miracle than feeding five thousand men and countless women and children – nothing is wasted.
The whole loaf of bread looks good. It’s full of potential, like you can do something with it. But as time passes, our full loaves get knocked about. Pieces break and fall off or are even torn out. Those lost bits and pieces might seem too insignificant to bother about. Just part and parcel of living.
We still cry many tears over the pain of lost wholeness. I tend to mop those tears up and toss the tissue. But God views them differently – “You keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all my tears in your bottle. You have recorded each one in your book” (Psalm 56:8).
Nothing is wasted.
Jesus said nothing is wasted. Not the whole loaf that was offered at the beginning. And not the broken bits that are left at the end. Not the time that you spent or the love that you gave or the kindness you showed. Not the mercy you extended. Not your time on the sidelines, in the nursery, in the sickbed, or even in bondage to the enemy. Nothing is wasted.
He can do something with all of it. He will use all of it to accomplish His good purposes. Those parts that seem lost or insignificant or worthless – the leftovers – He will not waste.
God does more with the broken bread than the intact loaf anyway. Think about it. It was broken bread that fed the multitudes. And when Jesus offered bread to the disciples at the Last Supper, He said, “This is my body, broken for you” (1 Corinthians 11:24 KJV). Not whole. Broken. And it was precisely in the moment when it appeared Jesus had wasted His life, that God used His brokenness to transform, ransom and redeem all things. Including you. Including me.