Who Said Little Can't Be GREAT?

Dennis likes BIG things—big apples, big pieces of pie, big everything—but sometimes, just sometimes, little things can also be impressively great.

Take the teeny-tiny blip in Alexander Fleming's laboratory. Upon his return from a vacation, the Scottish scientist noted that a mold spore had grown in a Petri dish of Staphylococcus bacteria. The surprising thing? The mold had caused the bacteria to be killed off. And voilá—the invention of life-saving penicillin.

Then there is the story of the accidental spill. A lab assistant dropped some synthetic latex and couldn't for the life of her wash it off her tennis shoes. Soap, alcohol, other mediums—nothing worked, but she and her colleagues noted something "funny" ... the integrity of the shoe's fabric texture remained intact. The alcohol, the soap, nothing penetrated the fabric. Such was the birth of scotch guard!

1938. A failed attempt at chocolate cookies. Ruth Wakefield, attempting to bake some chocolate cookies for her guests, decided to make them by chopping up a block of semi sweet chocolate and adding the chunks of chocolate to her cookie dough. She thought the chocolate would melt into the dough transforming it into what she wanted, a chocolate confection. It didn't—but the chocolate chip cookie was invented.

Little things—big returns. Little things that could have easily been shrugged off as inconsequential, mistakes—but because they were not brushed away, because instead they were thought on, meditated upon, great things were accomplished. Just like in the Bible.

A red cord hanging out window—a woman's life and that of her family saved. The woman? Rahab. Once a pagan prostitute, she opted to side with the people of the Living God—and became part of Jesus' ancestry.

A small lunch shared—the miracle of the feeding of the five thousand and a place of honor for a young boy in Biblical history.

An unspoken burden of prayer—and the cup bearer found grace in the face of the king, who subsequently sent Nehemiah to repair the walls of Jerusalem.

"Little" things, big results.

There will be similar "little" events in every life that will mark us, change us, endue us with epiphanies of what God is doing long term in our lives. But what about all the other "little" things in our lives? Even they have purpose.

You might not be part of earthly aristocracy, but ! Peter 2:9 tells us that His children are a part of God's royalty. Extrapolating on this truth, we begin to understand that where we are, our position in life, those with whom we interact—they are not by the luck of the draw. Just like Queen Esther in the Bible, we, too, are royalty, and, just as God had a divine purpose for her life, He has divine purpose for our lives (Esther 4:14). It might not "feel" like it, we might not be able to see the finished tapestry of it yet, but in due season the divine purpose will be revealed, just like it was in Esther's life.

It is also wrong to think, "The little I can do does not matter." Didn't Jesus Himself say, "He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much" (Luke 16:10)?

God sees more than we do; He sees the end from the beginning (Isaiah 46:10). Every single thing that He allows in our life is not the end of our story. It is but a part of the end to which He is leading us. Each little thing does matter, for it is an essential contribution to the whole, to the gestalt of God's will for our lives.

The bottom line is that you matter. As "little" or "insignificant" as you might perceive yourself, you matter. And because you matter, every thing you do matters. Every part of your life, every stage of your life, small or great, is part of a beautiful, divine purpose. And this feeds right into why God feels such joy when He looks at us. Just as a parent regards their young child, their falls, their follies, their successes, all as a source of unending joy—even so, He Who created you takes joy in every thing that pertains to you, in every single thing that is part of taking you towards the fulfillment of His will for your life.

God loves you. To Him, you matter, and every thing pertaining to you, seemingly inconsequential or monumental, matters—and fits into His divine purpose, whether we can understand it or not. And, if to Him the "little" things about you are so phenomenal, shouldn't we embrace them, think on them, meditate on what they might be trying to teach us? Because the truth of the matter is: "little" is great!

"For who hath despised the day of small things?" (Zechariah 4:10).

"The Lord hath been mindful of us: he will bless us" (Psalm 115:12).

"He will joy over thee with singing" (Zephaniah 3:17).

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