Little Things Are Part of God’s Will For Us

In the New Testament we read that Jesus invests himself primarily in 12 people.  And he didn’t even do a worldwide search to find the best 12. He takes 12 that have come out of few small villages in Israel.  Jesus didn’t despise the little things. He could be going on the road, going to a place where he knows he is going to have an opportunity to speak to hundreds and maybe even thousands, or He is heading to a synagogue to have a special time of teaching and on the way Jesus is willing to stop and let the little children come to him.

His disciples didn’t like that: Jesus, what you are doing is too important!  He says, “No, let the little children come to me.”  Little things.  He would be on the way, important things at the end of his journey and he is willing to stop to heal one woman, stop to heal one blind person.  Jesus wasn’t afraid of little things.  He recognized how important they are and he even did that in his teaching.  He showed us how important the little things were.  It’s Jesus who has taught us the incredible importance of a glass of cold water; that even a cup of cold water given in his name to the least of the people that we encounter can be something that God values so much that he considers it service to himself.  A little thing that is so honored in the eyes of God.

Sometimes we have got to realize that the little things are a lot what we do on the way to the will of God—the little things, the interruptions, the hassles, the unexpected things.  Those things are the will of God for us.  So let’s not despise the little things. Conversations in the hall or in the kitchen, thank-you cards, phone calls, casseroles and cakes, extra time we spend with people, fixing a light switch, cutting somebody’s grass or just treating a stranger with respect.

Little things do matter!  The problem is we can’t predict in advance which ones they are. We can’t pick and choose. It’s not the way only the spiritual world is built; it’s the way all of life is built. Little things matter and only God knows how much.