Daily Office Reflection: Those Little Things

Psalms 31 * 35; Proverbs 23:19-21, 29-24:2; 1Timothy 5:17-22(23-25); Matthew 13:31-35

Last weekend was a home improvement weekend for me. I changed out one of the bedroom closets from a single hanging bar and shelf to one of those closet systems, with two levels of hanging and shelving. The most difficult part of the whole project was ripping out the old shelf and hanging bar (who uses two inch long nails instead of screws?). I also switched out three light fixtures: in the bedroom, the dining room and the kitchen. I disliked all of those from the moment I moved in, but it took almost a year for me to: 1) decide which new fixtures I wanted, and 2) to get around to actually doing the change. But they all look just wonderful and make the place more distinctively mine. Little things in life can make such a huge difference.

Certainly Jesus is not talking about switching out closet systems and light fixtures in his parable of the mustard seed today. But I think those projects of mine last weekend are analogous to what Jesus is driving at today. They were little things in the big picture of life that seem to have little to no immediate effect, but they really do because to me, they made (and make) me happy, and are non-injurious to anyone. We are asked to think about small things in life today that can bloom into gi-normous things. These things are easy to miss, but they encircle us all the time and we need to stay aware for their happening, because they can be those thin places in life where we can find God's presence in our lives more easily. And it is not only those small things in life that we do but also those small things in life that we do not do: the snappy comment we pass during a conversation that can be so injurious, that angry email we send that causes so much anguish upon receipt. Small things, seemingly innocuous things, are what can transform a person, transform a relationship, make real changes to the world we live in. Those small things......

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