Smallness

"How far that little candle throws his beams, So shines a good deed in a weary world."

Darkness cannot overcome light. If the smallest bit of light be present, even if only a single candle, all the darkness of deepest space could not overpower it. It will shine out, throwing it's beams, perhaps meekly, but as far as it is able.

Toss a pebble in the sea. There will be no great splash; no tidal wave. Small ripples will naturally flow out, only to be absorbed in the greater flow of the sea's swell. But the ripples were made. Miles down the coast they could become a wave. Who knows?

The gospel changes lives. I sometimes get discouraged and think it is powerless to do so. But I've been reading Colossians and Paul's reminder to the Colossians that their lives have been changed, and others are being changed as well, has stuck in my head.

Still I run around on tiny errands. I think what I'm doing is so important, but then I remember that "the population of the entire universe, save for one trifling exception, consists of others." So I meagerly try to love, to invest...and I become frustrated. The change doesn't happen fast enough. People are annoying. Whatever I say or do seems lost and inconsequential.

But Jesus didn't ask for flood lamps: just candles on hills.
And pebbles are larger than mustards seeds.

Dear Lord, make of my weak, sickly love more than it is. Make it powerful in your presence. May your wreckless love show through. And may the little I have be enough in your hands to change the world...one tiny life at a time.