Tuesday, July 21, 2015

Lord, Please Help Me Find My Glasses

I heard the words -- a quick, off-the-cuff prayer, from the inner office of a co-worker. She hadn't even noticed she'd done it. "Lord, please help me find it."

"I like that," I said. "I enjoy being in a workplace where prayer is so common, even for the little things."

My coworker told me she occasionally gets laughed at for that. "Mom," her daughter would tell her, "He doesn't care about small stuff like that!"

Aren't we all tempted, sometimes, to believe that's true? That God simply doesn't have time to really care about the small, seemingly insignificant situations in our lives? Aren't the Christians being beheaded in the middle east certainly more important? Aren't families starving in the streets in greater need of intervention?

Well, fair enough. But if we're going to concede to having a God who can solve these big problems, isn't it fair to say He's big enough to deal with the small ones too?

Let me put it this way:

I love my wife. Because I love her, I help her. She has a big problem? I'm right there to assist. She has a small problem? Well, what should I do? Do I tell her I love her, but that she must deal with this small task on her own? If she needs a pair of socks, do I just give her a kiss and a "good luck with that" and go on doing whatever I was doing? Or, do I take into account that she asked for help? Do I consider that if she asked about such a small thing, she could probably use the assistance? As her husband, the answer is "yes." I absolutely help. Why? Because, put simply, I love her. I enjoy doing things for her. I enjoy making her happy. So, insofar as it is within my power to do so, I'll help her out -- even with the little things.

Because here's the secret: when it comes to love, there are no little things.

And as Jesus asks in Matthew 7:11,

If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!

The miracle here is that God -- the almighty, all-powerful being who created the entire Universe -- loves us at all! And yet He does, and has proven it by sending Christ, first to teach us how to love, and then to demonstrate that love by becoming the atonement for our unrighteousness on the cross. 

So, next time you lose your glasses, but are too afraid to bother God with something so small, ask yourself: Would the God who loved me enough to die really be put out by something like this? Is there such a thing as "too small" for someone whose Love is so big?
  
Indeed, the Lord delights in showing His love for us. Even in the little things.