The Small Things
Here is an exerpt from my book, Live Large. These portions are taken from Chapter Three, which is entitled Many Drops Make An Ocean. Enjoy!
Perhaps you have heard the saying, “Many drops make an ocean.” From what my research has shown, this saying is apparently derived from a Chinese proverb, a short saying used to convey an important principle or truth. In this case, it conveys the idea that many small things add up to make something large and great. In other words, the essence of life is in the small things. How correct that is, and how often we forget this simple truth...
Mary, the mother of Jesus, is a prime example. She did not perform any feats of superhuman strength. She did not make great speeches or lead any military campaigns. She did not organize people to solve some great social problem. What Mary did was to believe God and become a mother at the most inopportune time. She was just a teenage girl in a small village, not anyone we might identify as having an impact on the course of history. Her “large life” was found in the normal sacrifices of a mother. Although Joseph followed God’s direction and married Mary, her reputation must have suffered severely. There were certainly people who could do the math and knew she had been pregnant when she got married. All her life, she had to endure the whispers and the holier-than-thou looks of relatives and others who knew her. Yet, in spite of this, she raised Jesus and His brothers and sisters in the best way she knew. And in the end, she not only sacrificed her reputation, but her own first-born Son. Consider this: Mary is the only person, other than God the Father, who knows what it is like to see her own son die for the sins of the world. Yet, Mary’s life was not made only of the moment Jesus was born and the day He died. The real substance of her life was in the countless days of cooking, cleaning, and other hard work needed to raise a family. God saw her faithfulness in these things just as He saw her faithfulness to bear His Son. For example, the many trips she surely made to the market for food were as important as her trip to Calvary to witness her Son offered up as the Bread of Life. We miss the importance of everyday tasks, of the trivial work we routinely do. Mary’s diligence to care for the physical, mental, and emotional needs of Jesus and the rest of the family was essential for the plan of God to come to pass...
Yes, the small things really do add up. Without the faithfulness of His people to complete those tedious, repetitive, and often predictable jobs, the Kingdom of God would not go far. And that is what so many of us see. We only notice the drops. We see our lives dripping away, but we never pay attention to what is accumulating as a result of our efforts.
I hope you enjoyed this small snippet of my book. It is available for purchase on Amazon. To pick up a copy for yourself or a friend, go to our Resources page and click on the link. I know you will be blessed and empowered by the wisdom and encouragement it has to offer.
