When they had all had enough to eat, he said to his disciples, “Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted.” So they gathered them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten. John 6:12-13

Jesus fed a crowd of 5,000 with one boy’s lunch.  Not scraps. Not rations. A complete meal.  If each person had been given a single bite, it would have been a miracle. But this is the Kingdom: not survival, but overflow. I realize from John’s account that there was food left over!

When the multitude had eaten their fill, Jesus turned to His disciples and said, “Gather the pieces.” He would not allow abundance to become waste. Extravagance had been poured out, yet stewardship still mattered. Twelve baskets brimmed with what had been “leftovers”—enough to feed the very disciples who had served, and perhaps had not yet eaten themselves. This comforts me deeply. It tells me that every child of God who pours themselves out for others will also be filled. You cannot outgive God.

But there’s more here than bread and fish. There is a metaphor for the kingdom of God. Often, as it is in the physical, so it is in the spiritual. When I am fed by God’s Spirit and feel satisfied, could there still be more nourishment than I can see? I believe there is.  Here’s how I can discover it: I return to the last time God let me feast at His table. I call back the moments when His Word illuminated my soul, when His presence left me trembling. Then I retrace my steps. I invite the Holy Spirit to “gather the pieces”—to collect the fragments of truth I may have missed. This may mean revisiting a journal entry, listening again to an old sermon, or re-reading a passage of Scripture where my notes still whisper His voice. In the kingdom, nothing is wasted. “There’s more food than you thought,” God says to me.

Wherever He takes us today in review, may we find that Scripture is a many-faceted jewel. Each time we lift its stories into the Light, they catch fire and glisten, revealing new depths of God’s heart. He extracts mileage from everything—even a boy’s simple lunch of fish and bread.

Lord, do not let me waste Your food. Your touch always runs deeper, wider, and stronger than I realize. Feed me again from Your leftover manna.  Amen