The little things that speak loudly

Take care that you do not despise

One of these little ones. Matthew 18:10

 

Read Luke 16:9—13

Tonight Jesus is asking me to tune in to the possibility that lies in the little things. The little decision. The small bit of change. The brief word. Matters I have been tempted to call trivial or insignificant. He is wanting me tonight to attend to some little things in the past day that I would otherwise not give a second thought to. Somehow they can speak to me. Somehow they can become — how should I put it? — almost a parable. The point seems to be that if Jesus Christ is Lord, and he has my life in his hands, then there’s nothing irrelevant. There’s nothing that is free from him. Everything has his hand upon it. I’m not called simply to faithfulness in the big things. It’s the unnamed widow at the Temple whom Jesus saw and who is remembered for all time. Faithfulness, the way the Lord addresses me tonight, is not waiting for an audience. It won’t be measured by outcomes. It will be the air I breathe.

 

Gracious Father, I thank you that I live my life, every day, this day included, this night, I live within the great faithfulness of your Son. He is the faithful one. He is the one who knows that your eye is on the sparrow.[1] So I cannot fool you with any sleight of hand. If I were to act like a conjuror, you would see where my hand really went, and where my treasure really is. You would know if it was somewhere else than in the cheerful embodiment of your will. And my insignificant little moves would betray me. The little things show where my heart is, and so, as I reflect tonight, I see that it is the little things that speak to me quite loudly and clearly when I see them in your light. Capture my heart so that even the smallest and simplest and least significant things of my life point clearly to you.

[1] Matthew 6:26