Thankful For The Crumbs

“But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children’s bread, and to cast it to dogs. And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.” (Mt 15:26-27 AV)

I am sure glad for the crumbs God threw my way!  The one speaking is a Gentile woman who is begging Jesus for a miracle.  Jesus responded that He was the Jewish Messiah and was sent to the Jewish people.  The implication was, at that moment, Jesus prioritized His ministry to His brethren according to the flesh.  This Gentile woman did not take the LORD’s words as offensive.  He knew exactly what He was implying.  He was not sent to the Gentiles for little more than a miracle.  If He was to be accepted by the Gentiles, He must be accepted as their LORD and Savior.  To this end, since the Gentiles would never accept Him as their Messiah, the promises of the kingdom do not go to the Gentiles.  This woman would not take ‘no’ for an answer.  She rightly argued the grace of God has come upon all men and if she would receive but a very small portion, she would be eternally grateful.  To this, He complied.  He threw her a crumb of which she was immensely thankful.  One wonders if we are equally grateful for the crumbs God gives us, or are we dissatisfied unless God gives us the whole loaf of bread?

Growing up in such a large family, one learns to be grateful for the little one has.  The other day I was cutting up a cantaloupe and it brought back memories.  Cantaloupe was one of my Mom’s favorite breakfast foods.  For the most part, we had cereal Monday through Saturday.  On Sundays, my Mom made eggs to order.  When she had cantaloupe, she usually enjoyed that for herself.  Then one day, she let me have a piece.  I was hooked!  As far as I was concerned, I would eat it every day.  Have you ever seen a cantaloupe split twelve ways?  Not exactly large portions.  One was all we got.  My Mom realized how expensive cantaloupe could be for a family of thirteen, and seeing as how it was her favorite, she seldom bought the fruit as a regular staple.  We enjoyed this fruit about once every six to eight weeks.  And as I stated, the slices were very small.  Today, I buy one for myself and it lasts about a week.  I get this about every other week.  Hence my story.  I was cutting up the melon and I remembered how special it once was.  What was once infrequent and metered was not as common as I wanted it.  The crumb has lost its value.

When it comes to God’s blessings, we need to be grateful for both the big and the small.  The small crumbs God allows to fall from His table are no any less valuable.  Whether it is an entire meal or the crust from the bread, we deserve none of it.  We deserve an eternity of God’s wrath.  We do not deserve to live.  Yet Jesus bled and died so that we might have eternal life.  Our lives radically changed.  In large ways as well as small.  If we are not grateful for the small things, God may cease to bring the large things.  The crumbs are sufficient for our needs.  We can praise the LORD that He did not deem us as unworthy of His grace.  Praise the LORD for the crumbs that fall from His table.