Let Nothing Be Wasted
Life on the Pasture
As I'm sitting at my desk writing this, it's a few days before Thanksgiving. There is some snow coming down and anticipation in the air as students and teachers alike are looking forward to Thanksgiving break. My thoughts are drifting back to grade school days and recalling how the day before Thanksgiving break often seemed to bring with it a little snow. Thanksgiving day itself included attending worship in a full church, gathering with family and enjoying pre-meal snacks, the main course, and then dessert. But then it was time to move on to the next thing. And what was the next thing? When I was growing up in Milwaukee, the Journal was the evening paper, and on Thanksgiving night the paper was extremely thick, filled with advertisements loaded with Christmas gift ideas which I poured through.
There is a bit of irony there. We had just celebrated all the reasons for which to give thanks, and yet I was thinking about wanting more. I would love to say I poured through the ads thinking about what I could give other people, but I was putting together my own list of what I wanted for myself.
The traditional Gospel reading for Thanksgiving is the story recorded in Luke 17 about ten men with leprosy being healed but only one coming back to give thanks to Jesus. The reminder not to neglect thanksgiving to God is obvious. Here at Beautiful Savior, we will be hearing another story from Jesus' life instead: the feeding of the 5,000. There is one detail in the story that brings me back to another one of my Thanksgiving memories (and continued traditions): leftovers. We read that when they had all had enough to eat, Jesus 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 6:12–13).
Let nothing be wasted. In some ways, I look forward to the turkey sandwiches and pie on Friday more than the meal on Thursday. It's not only the taste of the food, but also the sentimentality of trying to keep the Holiday going. And, in fact, that's what true thanksgiving to our Lord enables us to do. Average days filled with disappointment and waste are transformed into holy days as we consider the wonder of a gracious heavenly Father who continues to care for our needs and bless us in so many ways. Without thankfulness it is so easy to move along to the next thing and miss the blessings that are still to be enjoyed. Without thanksgiving to the Lord there is the tendency towards self-centeredness. Without thankfulness to the Creator there is emptiness and discontent. But like the leper who immediately returned to Jesus to give thanks, when we recognize the wonder of the Father's gift of the Bread of Life, we cannot help but wanting to be with Him and savoring His gifts, wanting nothing to be wasted. O give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good! His mercy endures forever!
– Pastor Schmidt