Miracle of the leftovers

Jesus, help me trust that you'll give me what I need! Amen.

Five thousand people saw Jesus perform miracles, so they followed Him to a field. They were tired and hungry, but Jesus didn't want to send them home. Instead, He took five loaves of bread and two fish, blessed them, and passed them around. There was enough for everyone, plus leftovers! Then the people knew Jesus came from God.

Leftovers can be the most exciting thing about a meal. If your family orders a pizza and there's still some left after everyone eats, you know you can have pizza again the next day. If pizza is your favorite food, that's pretty exciting!

In a way, this week's Gospel (John 6:1-15) is about leftovers. In the story, Jesus performs a miracle by making enough bread and fish for 5,000 people to eat.

But there's more to the miracle than just everyone getting dinner, so they can keep listening to Jesus teach them about God instead of going home to eat. The "bonus miracle" is that there are leftovers!

When you know there's extra pizza in the fridge for tomorrow, you feel even more happy and satisfied than you would with just one meal of it. Now, you don't have to wonder what you'll have for lunch (or breakfast, if you like cold pizza): You're safe in the knowledge that another delicious meal is just waiting for you.

In Jesus' time, most people were poor. Often, they didn't get three meals a day -- or two, or even one. They didn't have extra food just sitting around waiting for the next time they got hungry.

That's why Jesus' miracle was so cool. Jesus showed that if people really believed in God, God would take care of them -- and not just for today. Jesus made enough leftovers so they didn't have to worry about the next day, either.

Most people call this story "the miracle of the loaves and fishes." But, really, it's the "miracle of the leftovers!"