Crumbs from the Master’s Table

Mark 7

“And she answered and said unto him, Yes, Lord: yet the dogs under the table eat of the children's crumbs.” (v. 28)

This verse has been very precious to me. Here is where these devotions were born; where they have their “roots”. Originally, I had written down many thoughts under the title “Crumbs from the Master’s table” and finally refined them into devotionals. The “Bread of life” is made up of crumbs. Every loaf of bread is made of millions of crumbs, lumped together to make a loaf. Each crumb has its significance, and though the master has the loaf, the crumbs are important to the dogs. Do not ignore the crumbs. The dogs have never eaten so good! As the Word of God contains much food for the weary soul, and the Master’s table is full of good things, let us glean a few crumbs as they fall our way. Personally, I believe it is this same Bread, and the many crumbs of it, that Jesus refers to in His model prayer in Matthew 6, where He says “Give us this day our daily bread”. I do not think He refers to literal bread, but to a “touch from God” so to speak. You see, we are to trust Him for bread, and not ask for it. Nowhere in Scripture is it commanded of us to ask for our basic needs, they have already been promised, and provided, we need only to trust God for them. Let us find these crumbs, as jewels of treasure, precious, and in this case, delicious.

This woman had faith, and was rewarded accordingly because she realized the importance of crumbs. I think of crumbs as “leftovers” as we see in the feeding of the five thousand where they disciples gathered twelve baskets full of them. (Mt. 14:20). These “fragments” were made of big crumbs! I also am reminded of the importance of “background people” who are not in the limelight, and are sort of comparable to “leftovers” in the church; the “undesirables” who fall by the wayside and no one wants to pick them up. The churches are full of them, but I ask, “What will you do with the crumbs?” These may be sweeping the pews, but not winning the souls; they may be slow witted, but cleaning the bathrooms and doing the things no one else wants to do, but they remain “crumbs” of no value to the congregation. They are people we endure, but do not wish to associate with. Let us gather the crumbs first, only then we can have the full loaf.