I’ve done my share of telling people to pick up.

Pick up your shoes.
Pick up your room.
Pick up your sweaty, smelly  jersey.
Pick up your cereal bowl with the milk that has curdled
and stinks to high heaven.

During all those years of raising four kids, I didn’t realize how spiritual I was sounding. (Neither did the kids, I’m sure.)

This week my reading was on the miraculous picnic in the pasture.
One little boy + 2 small fish + 5 barley buns + 5,000 men =
Scarcity.
But,
one little boy + 2 small fish + 5 barley buns + 5,000 men + Jesus =
Abundance.

When they had all had enough to eat, he said to his disciples,
“Gather the pieces that are left over.
Let nothing be wasted.”
John 6:12

This is what it looks like to be a disciple of Jesus.
There’s lots of picking up involved.

Picking up the toys in the church nursery.
Picking up the marshmallow sticks the youth group left in the fit pit.
Picking up the coffee cups and bulletins in the pews on Monday mornings.
Picking up the elderly neighbor and giving him a ride to church.
Picking up the soup for the Lent soup suppers.
Picking up the child who fell and scraped her knee.
Picking up the burdens of a friend who is grieving a loss.
Picking up the pen to write a check to someone in need.
Picking up the garbage on the side of the road.
Picking up the phone to speak words of encouragement.
Picking up the Word to keep the soul restored.

None of it is a waste.
All of it is abundance in the hand of the Master.

So they gathered them and filled twelve baskets
with the pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten.
John 6:13

This week’s reading: John 6 (deeper study on 6:35-44)
Next week’s reading: John 7 (deeper study on 7:37-46)