Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks to God, and distributed them to the people. Afterward he did the same with the fish. And they all ate as much as they wanted. After everyone was full, Jesus told his disciples, “Now gather the leftovers, so that nothing is wasted.” 11-12
Some people don’t like leftovers the next day, but that is one of my favorite things. I am not much of a “sandwich” guy, so leftovers for lunch the next day really pleases me. You might be surprised to see that Jesus was a fan of leftovers as well. 😊 I am, of course, speaking a bit tongue in cheek, but there is something very instructive for us in these verses. The story of the feeding of the 5000 teaches us that God can provide everything we need. We simply give Him the little we have in obedience and He then gives back to us all that we need. You can trust Him to provide for you and the disciples were learning at that moment that Jesus was a God who cared about their everyday needs as much as He cared about the big eternal issues.
There is another often overlooked aspect to this story and that is a lesson about Stewardship. You see, God owns everything and we own nothing. Everything we have is His because everything we have was given to us by Him. It is our job to use those resources prayerfully and wisely for His Kingdom. Stewardship also means that we have a responsibility to be careful with the things God provides for us and to not be wasteful, especially since it was a gift from Him. There is the possible temptation to think that since God is providing everything, we can just live in reckless abandon and know He will provide again tomorrow. Our society has become a “throw-away” society. Yet, Jesus seemed to dislike the possibility that what was left might go to waste. Our job is to trust the sovereignty of God that He will provide what we need when we need it, and then also be good stewards of what He gives us without wasting His resources. This two-sided coin, (Sovereignty and Stewardship), can apply to every area of our life and not simply food. For instance, Christians should be model conservationists. We are not paralyzed by the fear of a coming apocalypse because we know God is in control, but we also must care for this planet (the resource God created for us) and we must resist wastefulness and harmful practices as stewards of the earth. We should trust God with our time, knowing we will be with Him forever, but we must also resist the temptation to waste the time we have. In short, we honor God by trusting Him to provide for our needs, and then we honor Him again by doing a good job of managing the things He gives us. Think about that the next time you are eating leftovers… you are enjoying God’s provision and also honoring Him by not being wasteful.
