Cast your bread upon the waters, for you will find it after many days. Ecclesiastes 11:1, ESV

There we sat at the reading table in my classroom—a new first grader and her new teacher. 

As I looked at her, I wondered what it was like to be her. I knew a little bit about her background and that she had some family problems. But what I didn’t know is that after that school year, she would be placed into foster care, marking a very tumultuous time in her life. 

But there we sat. I was eager to hear her read for the first time. She looked at me nervously with her disheveled appearance. I broke the silence with, “Okay, let’s read!”

She looked at me with defeated eyes and said, “Mr. Wagoner, I can’t read. I’m not very smart.” 

Over the course of that year, I remember working with her, encouraging her, and trying to get her to smile—even just once. By the middle of the year, she started to read a little better, smile at times, and overall, she seemed happier. 

But then I started to wonder, what would happen at the end of the year? Would she have another teacher who would try to build into her life next year? Would she be placed in foster care and have to attend another school? Would she end up living with families that already had a defeated mindset and would pass that on to her? 

As teachers, these are questions we deal with every year. Students come and go, and we pour into their lives, only to see them leave our classrooms and leave us wondering what will become of them. 

At times, it seems almost futile to pour into a life and not know the outcome. But in Ecclesiastes, we see that is just how the Lord works. He calls us to cast out our bread that has been freely given to us for the lives of others, even those whom we may never meet again. They may be strangers, family members, or even students in our classroom. But still, we are called to cast our bread without knowing if we will ever see anything in return. 

A few years later, I was teaching in a middle school. When I looked at my roster in August, right before classes began, I noticed a familiar name and thought, Could it be? 

It was! I was actually nervous to see her on the first day because a lot of feelings stirred up inside of me. What would she be like now? Would she remember me? Would she be able to read? 

All of those questions were answered over the next few weeks and months. 

She was an avid reader and could read aloud very well. I remember telling her one time, “Wow, you must’ve had an amazing first-grade teacher!” 

I will never forget the smile she gave me. 

One day, I heard her say in the hallway, “Mr. Wagoner was my first-grade teacher!” 

I was so proud of her, and apparently, she was proud of me. 

A few months later, she started to open up even more and tell me that she had been placed into foster care after first grade. She moved around quite a bit until she eventually ended up with her current family. Things started to improve for her a little—she started going to church and reading her Bible. She started caring about her grades and working hard in school. 

I was happy to hear about the positive transformation that had taken place in her life and felt blessed that she was willing to share it with me. We continued our wonderful relationship that school year that began years ago, with me simply casting my bread upon the water. This time, I got to see the return through this student’s beautiful life.

Lord, thank You for the manna from Heaven that You provide for us. Thank You for the Bread of Life, Jesus, that we can share with others. Open our hearts so we may see the broken lives that are hungry and give the bread we have been freely given. Help us to never see it as our bread, but Your bread, that as we share, it will be replenished.

Copyright Matthew Wagoner.

Matthew is a Christian Educators member and a sixth-grade middle school language arts and social studies teacher in western North Carolina.