Gathering up the fragments.

 
[True Story]

Once upon a time a great number of people went to hear a popular speaker talk at an event. Unfortunately the place where the event was held was some distance from local amenities, and the time of year, being the end of winter and very early spring, meant that there was no wild fruit on the hedges or trees.
This rally appears to have been organised in something of a hurry, for the assistants to the speaker had not even brought food for themselves. Only a little boy with a lunch box had any food, which was hardly going to feed over 5000 men, let alone women and children.
But the speaker’s assistants did as instructed with the boy’s lunch, and somehow there was enough food for everyone to eat their full. Not only did the crowd eat, but so did the assistants. The official record of what happened says ‘And they [the crowd] did all eat, and were sufficed, and they took up of the fragments that remained, twelve baskets full.'
Note that there was one basket left over for each disciple (12 in total).

There are many lessons here, but I think one of them is that if you gather up the fragments, you will have enough for yourself. I have found this to be a particularly true lesson in terms of time. I have enough time to do everything I want, if I gather up the fragments. For instance, there’s a 45 minute window of time I have every Sunday morning, between breakfast and getting ready for church. This week, I used that ‘fragment’ to clean the chicken coop and cut back dead flowers in the garden. The chickens are happier, my garden is tidier, and I am better satisfied. Especially because the weather in the afternoon turned foul, and I couldn’t have done those tasks then as I did between 8.45 and 9.30 on Sunday morning.

Gather up the fragments of time, and we’ll have more than enough time to do both what we need, and what we want.

Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise,  making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. (Ephesians 5:16)