Leftover

“They leave you out here too? Yeah, they’re in there deciding what to do with me. How come you’re here?”

My boredom and impatience fled. Waiting for my friends to finalize the adoption of their new daughters, it seemed as though I’d been waiting hours. I hadn’t even noticed him, and I wondered how long he’d been sitting there. That’s how I met Jonah.

Jonah had come home from a fun weekend with his best friend to find his entire family gone. Just gone. Jonah told me his parents had been fighting a lot about money; his dad lost his job last month.

“But I don’t eat much, and I didn’t even ask for anything for Christmas.”

He was trying to figure it all out.

Jonah said they’d left a note telling him they loved him and he’d have to “be a man” now — at 12 years old?

His parents had taken his four little sisters and brothers, but Jonah said maybe it was because teenagers were so expensive.

He’d overheard his mother saying that the night before he’d gone to spend the weekend with his friend.

“And I’ll be 13 next month.” Jonah mumbled, looking down, “I guess I’m like leftovers.  When they get too old, you just throw them out.”

It was definitely a “God-thing.”

It just popped out of my mouth.

“Jesus never throws away leftovers. He gathers them up.Really.After He fed over 4,000 people, He had His disciples gather all the pieces up, ALL of them.”

I read these Bible verses to him: “And all of them ate and were filled; and they took up the broken pieces left over, seven baskets full.” (Matthew 15:37)

I got the “yeah, right” look as my reward. So, I took that as an invitation, and I shared the stories of Jesus feeding the two crowds, four and five thousand — plus! And both times – Jesus’ disciples were careful to collect the leftovers. Gathered them in fact – in baskets.

I told Jonah about Jesus’ first missionary (the crazy guy who lived in the cemetery – Mark 5), the king of all the “leftover” human beings.

Hope. That’s what began to glimmer in Jonah’s eyes as we talked. I could just feel God at work. Oh yes, God’s power at work in us CAN do far more than we can ask – or even imagine. (See Ephesians 3:20-21)

No one was more surprised than I when, a year later, Jonah walked into my science classroom. He’d had a rough year, but he’d found a caring foster family, and he beamed as he shared with me that his adoption would be final by the end of the school year.

“My foster parents, they had one of those baskets you told me about that day. They just gathered me up, just like Jesus told those guys to do in the Bible!”

Human beings have leftovers. Jesus doesn’t.

We throw leftovers away. Jesus refuses to give up. He gathers them up in baskets.

On your bad days, your “leftover” days, feel yourself gathered up. Know you are precious to God. Precious enough for God to send Jesus for you. Yes, you.

On your good days, grab a basket. Reach out to the Jonahs you meet. Be a disciple.  Spread eternal hope. You too can help God gather the broken. Just be open to the “God-incidences” in your life.

Remember always — with Jesus, no one is a “leftover.”