Small Things

The scene is one that I have talked about often in recent years in the history courses that I teach. I use it because it is a wonderful example of how our understanding of the meaning of historical or current events can be different from God’s perspective. Jesus is in the temple, watching events unfold. One by one, wealthy individuals parade through the temple, donating the sums that will keep the temple’s treasury full. If records were kept of donations, these would be the ones that people would tend to notice. But in the middle of it all, Jesus points his disciples somewhere else – a woman, a widow with two copper coins, dropping them without fanfare into the money box. Without Jesus’s input, no one would have noticed the real story of this day. That story, Jesus tells His disciples, is not the big names, not the “important” people, it is the story of this woman, putting in everything that she has (Mark 12:21-44; Luke 21:1-4). The shocking truth this reveals is that the things that matter in our world in God’s eyes will almost always go unnoticed.

I thought of this again yesterday at church. One particular line of one particular song has reminded me before and reminded me again of my mom, as six years approach since she died:
“If my days tell a story, let it be of You only
Everything for the honor of Your name.”
To me, my mom’s life reminds me of the power of small things. If you knew her, you probably know what I mean. If you were feeling discouraged and received a gentle word of hope from her, you might understand. She was never front-and-center. She was never on the stage. She made her way through life like the widow in the story, mostly on the fringes of notice, but powerfully influential in the lives of those that she touched. And she did it with the desire to be used by God, to have her story be a story of His goodness and grace.
There are so many others like my mom. They are not influencers. They are not the names that people think of when they think of the “leadership” of the church. But I am convinced that most of the people who are called to sit up close to Jesus at the banquet may be people we knew, but ones that we hardly recognize. Because this is how the kingdom of God works. It is, as the text of the sermon I heard yesterday tells, like a little yeast that works its way through a batch of dough. In this illustration, Jesus teaches that the kingdom of God does not work like other kingdoms, with the powerful and influential implementing a top-down approach to change. Instead, the transformative work of the Kingdom is in little moments like the donation of two copper coins, in the touch of a hand bent by the years that communicates grace, mercy, and the love of Christ. I am guessing that the biggest stories of our day have less to do with culture warriors and big names and more to do with the powerful work that God is doing in using the least of His people to bring change to the lives of people who need it most. This has always been the best work that the Spirit does through the Church:
“The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” (John 3:8)
I think that we rely too much on the power of strategy. We have allowed our pride to convince us that we can figure out what God is doing in the world and bring it about. It makes us feel important in ways that God doesn’t intend. I still remember the verse that one of my professors at Wheaton College had posted on his door: “And seekest thou great things for thyself? Seek them not.” (Jeremiah 45:5). Our own attempts to establish God’s kingdom demonstrate the smallness of our view of God and of how His kingdom actually flourishes by His inscrutable power. Those ambitions emerge from an unwillingness or inability to be content with the smallness of our role and the idea that we probably have no idea what God is accomplishing in this moment in history.
The twisting vines move slowly through the years, winding their way in among thorny plants and thick trunks of trees. I think my mom’s life was like that. She is not unique in this, but I think God gave me a glimpse yesterday of the flourishing that she made possible through her small actions. My oldest daughter, Olivia, had a couple of months as a toddler when she spent a lot of time with her Noni. These are not even a memory for her, but something in me tells me that that time left its mark and continues to bear fruit in Olivia’s life. There are people who today live lives of blessing, who are walking out their faith, who are loving others, in some small part because of what they experienced from my mom. Even if they don’t know it. Even if I don’t know it.
Two copper coins, a little bit of yeast, a small kindness in the name of Christ in the midst of an angry and competitive world. Faith in an infinite God grants us eyes to see that the smallest of things are not only a part, but the primary substance, of God’s work in the world.



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