Leftovers

Black Friday

Yesterday was the Thanksgiving holiday. A day marked in our culture with feasting and fellowship. Usually, the abundance of food leaves us with additional portions of various dishes stored away in tupperware, or, if you are genuinely cultured in country ways, you use old butter and cool whip bowls. 

But this day is also known for its abundance in another kind of overflow. This is the day known as Black Friday. To the best of my knowledge, this term comes from the fact that many retail businesses move into the profitable category for the year based on the sales that take place on this day each year or at least the sales over this extended weekend. An active shopping weekend as folks get a jump on their Christmas shopping, ends up being a bountiful reason for Thanksgiving for the stores and retailers.

Blessings Abound

But dollars and cents are not really what we should be most thankful for as we enter the holiday season. Many of us probably overlook the lavish blessing that our affluent abundance affords us. Take for example the leftover sample of the holiday feast mentioned above. Those are not just some tasty morsels tempting us to indulge, but rather they are reminders of the overflowing supply that God has graciously given us. Besides, we all know that the best part of the Thanksgiving food is the turkey sandwich the next day. 

The real blessing of the feast is the fellowship shared with those that we love, both blood related and blood bought! Our leftovers (memories) are meant to be for us a lingering blessing of love and grace from God. They also serve to call us back to the table for faithful and fruitful fellowship. Sometimes we get tempted to neglect the old traditions for shiny new trends or we become overwhelmed by busyness, cutting the margin out from our blessings. In any case, we ought to recognize the sweetness of the simple but substantial bounty from the Lord.

Baskets

Jesus wasn’t afraid to have a few leftovers around either. Remember when Jesus fed the multitudes on those couple of occasions. Have you ever wondered why the portions were not exact? I mean, Jesus had the ability to feed thousands of hungry bellies from the measly rations of five loaves and two fish on one occasion (John 6:3-13) and seven loaves and a few fish in the other situation (Matthew 15:32-39).  With this kind of sovereign omnipotence surely He could have made the perfect amount to meet the need. 

But that’s exactly the point, His calculations were perfect! The Lord Jesus did not make more than He intended, but exactly what He intended to show His abundant grace. He poured out more than the people needed. There are so many important points that could be drawn from what the Lord was doing, but I would like to deal with just one in the remainder of this post.

In the passage in John 6, Jesus is showing that He is greater than Moses and greater than the gift of manna from heaven. He is the true bread that comes down from heaven that fully and completely satisfies. Remember in the wilderness the children of Israel were not allowed to collect any extra. This meant that they had to trust God to provide each day. But now in Jesus’ provision, we also continue in faith but that is seen in the abundance of baskets that the disciples gathered after the feast. Let me encourage you to enjoy both the assurance and the rest that you have as a believer in Christ. Jesus is more than enough! 

Happy Thanksgiving & Merry Christmas, Saints!

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