Let nothing be wasted

When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, "Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?" He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do. Philip answered him, "Eight months' wages would not buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!" Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, spoke up, "Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?" Jesus said, "Have the people sit down." There was plenty of grass in that place, and the men sat down, about five thousand of them. Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted. He did the same with the fish. 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 6:5-13

REFLECTION
Poor Philip. He has a Master who knows everything and is able to do everything, but now he really is asking for the impossible. “How far can we stretch our budget, my friend? Do you think we still have some cash left to buy food for this hungry crowd?”
Philip sighs. Eight months' wages would not buy enough bread for each one to have a bite! This is just too big a challenge, even for a devoted, faithful disciple like Philip.
Now Andrew has a bright idea. He has checked the inventory. Ah – good news! There’s one little boy who brought his lunch, let’s see what we can do with that. If we just divide five small barley loaves and two small fish by five thousand… Well, what am I thinking? This is just a ridiculous idea!
Okay, let’s try to solve this problem together. What do we have? Lots of hungry people and plenty of grass to sit on. But grass will only feed sheep. So what do we really need? An amazing Master who is able to multiply his blessings even if his disciples are clueless and hopelessly divided.

PRAYER
Dear Jesus, sometimes it seems that you take pleasure in asking for the impossible. How can we ever reach all the individual people in this world with your amazing blessings? We really don’t feel up to the challenge and sometimes we almost feel like giving up. Still, this is exactly what you told us to do, to go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. I really don’t know what we need to achieve this, in terms of money, media and manpower… Maybe it's wiser to leave this bigger-than-life questions in your mighty hands? Use us Lord to cater to all people no just a select few. We trust that you will do some amazing miracles again if we just bring our little lunches and thankfully start sharing what we have received from you first.