Nothing May Be Lost

After this Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, also called the Sea of Tiberias. A large crowd kept following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing for the sick. Jesus went up the mountain and sat down there with his disciples. Now the Passover, the festival of the Jews, was near. When he looked up and saw a large crowd coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?” He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do. Philip answered him, “Six months’ wages would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little.” One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what are they among so many people?” Jesus said, “Make the people sit down.” Now there was a great deal of grass in the place; so they sat down, about five thousand in all. Then Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated; so also the fish, as much as they wanted. 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. When the people saw the sign that he had done, they began to say, “This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world.”
When Jesus realized that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself. John 6:1-15 

Nothing May Be Lost

Dear God who gathers and sends us
who is with us in our hunger and tears
with the smallest offerings you make miracles
sustenance for life from small fragments.

Our lives have been shattered in this time
we feel like broken glass on the ground
yet from the shards of our existence
you promise to make great stained glass.

We feel like fragments and torn bits
not whole but completely in pieces
in a desert, far from anything familiar
we ache for safe harbors and sure provisions.

Help us to offer the broken pieces of our lives
so that you might create new life for all
strengthen us to gather all the lost fragments
so your love might thrive among us once more. Amen