Hebrews 4:12 tells us that the Word of God is “…alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” This living nature of God’s Word never ceases to surprise me in that each time I read it, the impact is different. Often something from a passage jumps out at me based on my current circumstances. Even a passage that is super familiar can take on new meaning for me at times.
Recently, a single detail from John 6 struck me in a very new way. This passage is insanely familiar and even small tots in Sunday School could give you the basic overview of Jesus feeding the five thousand people with five small barley loaves and two small fish. We tend to focus on the insane results of this miracle and the irony in the disciples asking “.. how far will that go among so many?” (John 6:8) However, one morning in reading this passage, I was struck by the fact that what the boy had with him was his lunch.
Now, packing lunches at home each morning is a war zone. Three kid’s lunches times five days per week is 15 lunches per week!!! Who has time for that??? The volume alone can be overwhelming, but then there is the stress of what to pack. I have one kid who wants exactly the same thing each day (clearly my favorite kid), I have one who wants something different 180 school days per year with no repeats, and one who really would prefer to skip lunch but the school requires it so lunch it is! Every morning I am scrambling to get lunches packed, get dressed, fix breakfast and get out the door alive; but packing lunches is definitely the most stressful piece.
Until reading John one morning, I had never considered the “doing as unto the Lord aspect” of packing lunches. However, this little fellow’s lunch became the center of one of the biggest miracles in history. Who packed it for him? Who knows, but I like to think it was his mom. That poor lady, frantic to get it all done on time, opens the cabinet and all she could throw together was some bread and fish. She tosses it in his lunchbox (or whatever he had it in) and sends the little guy out the door with seconds to spare.
She had no way of knowing how God would use it. It was not fancy. It certainly is not what most women would prepare for a large gathering. It may not have even been enough food to really get him through the day, much less feed the crowd. However, God used what the little fellow had. It didn’t matter that it wasn’t fancy. It didn’t matter that he didn’t have a food from each food group or that his bread wasn’t gluten-free. It only mattered that he had it and he was willing to offer it to Jesus. God took the results of one of the most repetitive, meaningless, daily tasks and turned them into a miracle that would be documented for millennia.
What task in your life are you “so over?” Don’t be! God does not waste a crumb. Somewhere, somehow when we do whatever we do for the Lord, He uses even the smallest things to do His mighty, eternal work. Offer your crumbs to Him and trust Him. He can multiply your effort infinitely.
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