The Devil’s in the Details?

The devil’s in the details, or so the saying goes. Truth … or myth?

For close to two years, one of my sons ferried me back and forth bimonthly from Tennessee to Texas for a job to die for (don’t get jealous, now!) — babysitting the newest additions to the Muse family. On one given month, on my last day in Tennessee—or better said, my last eating day, since travel days did not lend themselves to a sit-down-to-eat-before-you-leave meal, I thought I’d splurge and fix a yummy dish of sautéed veggies (all from our garden) to grace a delectable homemade flour tortilla.

I started my veggies early so they could simmer and be "just right" by the breakfast hour. Finished with my work in the kitchen and nearby laundry room, I turned the knob on the stove to “off” so I could go work on the other side of the house without worrying about burning my yummy veggie concoction. That was my intention, anyway.

Off I trotted to my other before-breakfast duties. Clean, clean, clean. Happy, happy, happy. Everything was going great guns. Going-away chores were being checked off lickety-split. All was right with the world. Until I sauntered back into the kitchen. To find my super-duper favorite sauté pan smoking from burnt inedibles. Apparently, if one is not careful, the stove knob might get stuck on HIGH rather than on OFF.

There’s a lot to be thankful for. I didn’t burn the house down. Smoke alarms didn’t go crazy. Dennis didn’t blow a gasket (for a big bear of a guy he’s amazingly laid back). There was just enough not-burned stuff left to trick the flour tortilla into thinking it was housing a full meal. Edible but definitely not delectably yummy.

The burnt sacrifice of a meal might have been slightly salvageable, but my once favored sauté pan bit the dust. Even after soaking for hours, the burnt-on matter refused to budge. All because of a teensy-weensy little space differentiating “Off” and “High.”

Hmm ... This reminds me of the words of a well known political figure. In the wake of a catastrophic decision that caused the loss of American lives, this person said, “What difference does it make?” She was so, so wrong. One small scintilla of difference can be the difference between burnt and not burnt, between life and death.

The sick people lying around the pool of Bethesda knew that only the very first person in the pool after the angel stirred the water would get healed (John 5:1-9). The second had hope—but only the first got healed. The difference: one solitary step.

The student in Elisha’s school of prophets lost a borrowed axe head that sunk in the waters. What did it matter? Let the guy find a way to pay the owner back. Serves him right for borrowing. But he asked the man of God for help, who worked a miracle for that student. The iron axe head floated to the top (in case you didn’t know, iron is denser than water and sinks in it) and the student’s integrity was saved. Just one man. Just a little honor. In the great scheme of things, what did it matter? But it mattered to God (2 Kings 6:5-7).

“Strike the arrows on the floor,” the prophet directed the king. One, two, three strikes—and he stopped. The prophet was incensed. “Why did you stop at three?” he queried angrily. “If you had struck eight times you would have completely decimated your enemy. Now it will only be a half victory” (2 Kings13:18-19). One time, eight times. What difference does it make? All the difference between complete victory and quasi victory.

The disciples had the dust of the road dirtying their feet. Though fully conscious that He was the Son God, Jesus knelt humbly to wash those feet. Peter remonstrated with Him. Though he still didn’t have a complete revelation of Whom Jesus was, he knew enough to realize that their Master should not be relegated to a job better fitted to the lowest of servants. Yet Jesus told Him, if he did not submit to this washing, he was none of His (Matthew 20:5-9). Just one small act. Just a little matter of humbling oneself to receive an undeserved gift. But it marked the line between being one of His—and not.

Just a little thing. Just a little difference between this and that—but what a difference it can make.

Perhaps a better version of the common saying used in the title would read, “God is in the details!" And our part in these snarky details?—to keep an eye out for those seemingly “insignificant” minutiae so that we don't miss life-giving prompts from God. To make sure the knob is on OFF and the food isn’t burnt. Abundant, glorious life is in the details.

Help me, Lord, to tread through the details of life carefully, always listening to Your guiding nudge.

"Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines ..." (Song of Solomon 2:15).

“O Lord, thou hast searched me, and known me. Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off. Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O Lord, thou knowest it altogether” (Psalm 139:1-4).

“Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows” (Matthew 10:29-31).