Wednesday, August 21: “But Wait, There’s More …”

John 6: 12, 13: “When [the crowd was] filled, [Jesus] said to His disciples. ‘Gather up the leftover fragments so that nothing will be lost.’ So they gathered them up, and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves which were left over by those who had eaten.”

The mercy of God was certainly on the five thousand men gathered on that Galilean hillside that day, as He fed them, along with their women and children, with five loaves of bread and two small fish. But His mercy extended further; much further, as far as twelve bushel baskets of leftovers would go. Not only those present, but many other needy and hungry folks were covered by the unlimited and unmerited mercy of God, which knows no ends or bounds to those who realize their need for it.