The Leftover Bread

One of my problems with reading the Scripture is asking questions which really have no reason to be asked.  For example, what did the mother and father of Mary think about their daughter's unusual "this is how I became pregnant" story?  And another is who took care of Simon Peter's family when he quit fishing and started following Jesus?  And finally, the question which came out of my reading of the feeding of the five thousand as the gospel writer, John, tells it:  What happened to the leftover bread?  

The Scripture leaves the question hanging in the air as it says, "When they were satisfied, He told His disciples, 'Gather up the fragments left over, so that nothing may be lost.'  So they gathered them up, and from the fragments of the five barley loaves, left by those who had eaten, they filled twelve baskets." (John 6:12-13).  Jesus must have had a plan since He expressed concern that nothing be lost.  He obviously did not want the bread given by the boy and blessed by His words to be wasted.  He had some use for it in mind, or He would not have been so intentional about it being gathered.  

During the days when I was serving churches, there were times when smaller groups gathered for the Holy Meal and I would prepare the Sacrament.  This meant that I was responsible for taking care of what was leftover.  Since it had been blessed and set aside for holy purposes, it seemed inappropriate to pour what was left in the cup down the drain and to throw the leftover bread in the trash.  This conviction led me to the ritual of pouring the leftover from the cup on the ground and scattering the bread beside it.  Unlike the trash can, the ground was holy.  I always figured the birds would eat the bread until one evening I saw an old stray yellow cat race in to devour the bread.  As I watched the cat, I knew the leftover blessed bread was not wasted.