So when they were filled, He said to his disciples, “Gather up the fragments that remain, so that nothing is wasted.” John 6:12

My mama never wasted anything. As an Appalachian woman and a single mother of six, she learned the value of the smallest, most insignificant items. Things most might think were useless, she’d keep in case she recognized a way to turn it into something useful. This particularly pertained to her garden. 

Living in the mountains and having to feed a ‘gang of young’uns” she planted several gardens, tended and worked by the whole family. Our father died when we were young, so most of our food came from what we grew or the animals we kept. 

One time, as we were digging up our potato patch, we came upon some of the tiniest potatoes. Some not even as big as the tip of a thumb. So, us children decided to leave them in the ground to rot. Mama, who’d learned to save everything, went back behind us picked up all those tiny potatoes, placing them in her bucket with the rest. When her own mother asked her once, “Peggy, why do you keep such small potatoes?” Mama answered, “It may seem like a lot of work now, but when we need them, they’ll be just enough.”

Biblical Values

Jesus taught his disciples a similar lesson one day. They’d been out all day, busy working through crowds and countryside. Jesus had been healing the sick and performing miracles. As the day progressed, the crowd of people following Jesus became hungry. Jesus turned to his disciples and asked, “Where shall we find bread?” with the intention of feeding the crowd. The disciples inform Jesus that there isn’t enough money and the only food available is a little boy’s gift of five loaves of bread and two fish. As he often did, Jesus took the opportunity to teach his disciples an important lesson. You probably know the rest of the story. Jesus takes the fish and loaves, gives thanks, and then distributes the loaves and fish into baskets, and the food multiplies enough to feed five thousand…with leftovers to spare. 

And then Jesus had them gather up the leftovers. The scraps. The remnants. Why did he do that? 

I don’t think it was about being frugal, exactly. A God who could multiply five loaves into a feast for five thousand didn’t need to worry about running short. He could have just as easily let the fragments lie where they fell. But instead, he told his disciples to gather them up so that nothing was wasted, because nothing He provides is ever really a scrap, even what looks like scraps to us. 

Every Gift Matters

Not only does this story show us God’s abundance in the way he gives, but it also reminds us that even the smallest parts of what God gives matters. 

That’s what Mama knew, kneeling in the dirt behind us, picking up castoff potatoes her children had decided weren’t worth the trouble. She wasn’t just saving food. She was trusting that a day was coming when even the smallest thing would matter. 

Because God didn’t waste anything, neither would she. 

Often times we’re quick to decide what’s too small to be important, what’s too painful to be useful, what’s too insignificant to matter. But every moment, every tear, every sacrifice, every service or prayer of thanksgiving, sorrow, or praise, is significant to God – no matter how broken, small, or seemingly unimportant. The God who fed five thousand from five loaves doesn’t waste what He’s given. And more often that we’d guess, those fragments turn out to be exactly enough…maybe even more than enough.