Bits and pieces

       "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)
         I've often thought about that.  Here was the Maker, Creator and Sustainer of the universe.  He had just blessed and broken a few tiny fish and a couple of rolls and miraculously produced enough food to feed and satisfy thousands.  With a word, with a mere breath, He could have instantly created a sumptuous feast for anyone and everyone. Yet the Almighty One commands His disciples to go around and gather up the leftovers. Gather the tiny bits and pieces, maybe even from the ground.  He could make brand new beautiful rolls and fish. Why worry about those crummy, little leftovers?
         Because He's the Good Shepherd.  The Bread of Life. The Way, the Truth, and the Life.  The Light of the World.  The Lamb of God who came to take away the sin of the world.  The Savior and Redeemer who never gives up on us, who never leaves us, who never forsakes us, who never stops loving us. 
       And nothing--absolutely nothing--is wasted with our Lord.  Not our challenges, not our joys, not our weaknesses, not our strengths, not our greatest sorrows or our deepest shame, not one moment of any of our lives.  He sees and knows and cares about each moment and He uses every single one of them for our ultimate good and His glory.  There is nothing about your life or mine that is insignificant to Him, and He can take our tiniest fragments and mega-multiply them!
         This I know by faith...but sometime-well, actually, oftentimes--in the nitty gritty of life, the disappointments and heartaches, I forget. But His Word reveals to us and reminds us that the King of glory is sovereign.  He is all-knowing, all-powerful, and all--good.  He makes no mistakes and wastes no moments. Not in your life nor in mine.
         And He tells us to gather the leftover pieces...for He will somehow, someway use them all for our good and His glory.  Hand Him your weak little bits of energy.  Your tiny fragments of faith.  Your teeny stores of love.  Your nearly nonexistent snippets of patience.  Your minuscule scraps of hope.  Give those bits and pieces to Him...then watch what He will do with them.  He who crafted the stars and formed the mountains with a word will multiply and magnify.  He'll revive and renew.  He'll sustain and strengthen.  He will take our too littles and not enoughs and transform them into occasions for His glory and goodness to be experienced and revealed in our lives.
         I don't know what your bits and pieces might be today.  But we all have them--and Jesus wastes not one of them.  He tells us to gather those broken fragments and place them in His nail-scared, omnipotent hands.  If He can turn a few rolls and a couple of sardine-sized fish into a feast for thousands, imagine what He can do with our teeny tiny pitiful leftovers.  He is the God who "is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine according to His power that is at work within us..." (Eph.3:20)  Not us, but Him.  And He gets all the glory.
           Today, hand Him your too littles and too lates.  Trust Him. Obey Him.  Wait on Him.  Praise Him, even with those leftovers and fragments. He will always be more than enough.
           To God be the glory.