Here lies the tremendous mystery –
that God should be all-powerful, yet refuse to coerce.
He summons us to cooperation.
We are honored in being given the opportunity to participate in his good deeds.
Remember how He asked for help in performing his miracles:
Fill the water pots, stretch out your hand, distribute the loaves.
Elisabeth Elliot
***
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 NIV
When they had all had enough: Jesus was generous, giving everyone as much as they wanted. This was a remarkable miracle. Though the disciples did not understand or anticipate it, Jesus invited them to participate in it. Without their work, no one would have been fed.
“Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted”: Jesus was generous, but not wasteful. Jesus makes good use of everything.
So they gathered them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces
of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten.
John 6:13 NIV
“The term used for ‘basket’ (kophinos) usually denotes a large basket,
such as might be used for fish or bulky objects.”
Merril C. Tenney
“The fragments are not the half-eaten morsels and crumbs
which might well be left for birds and beasts,
but the broken portions which He had handed for distribution.”
G. H. Trench
***
One morning I was reading the story of Jesus’ feeding of the five thousand.
The disciples could find only five loaves of bread and two fishes.
‘Let me have them,’ said Jesus. He asked for all.
He took them, said the blessing, and broke them before He gave them out.
I remembered what a chapel speaker … had said:
‘If my life is broken when given to Jesus,
it is because pieces will feed a multitude,
while a loaf will satisfy only a little lad.’
Elisabeth Elliot