We can be convinced that we do nothing of any significance. It might seem that all of the evidence shows that we are having no effect on another particular person.
We see so little. So much there is we do not see.
What we do is little, yet it can matter so much. It might seem to matter little, but out of just a little can come so much.
What we do might matter little to us. Yet it might matter a great deal to someone else.
I am not speaking merely in theoretical terms here. I have seen this truth demonstrated right in front of my very eyes.
I am thinking of a generous person I know named Amy. Amy likes to make desserts for people. Recently Amy made a pie for someone who was turning 43, who said no one had ever made her a dessert for her birthday.
We can think that we are doing something routine and normal and ordinary and therefore that what we are doing does not matter much. However, we might find out that what we have done is much more special than we had thought, and gives much more love to a person than she has previously received. In the little presents we give, we might be extending much more kindness, with much more of a nurturing and caring effect than we realize.
Unlike people who do not see that little acts of love can have great effects on others, Amy recognizes that every dessert she makes is an opportunity to love her neighbor as herself,* just as Jesus taught us to do. She bakes treats for people since she seeks to love others. She seizes little chances to serve her neighbor.
When we perform little acts of kindness for our neighbor, we follow the little way of Saint Therese of Lisieux, whose feast day we celebrate today. Saint Therese sought to get to Heaven by making herself little, by making little sacrifices, by showing her love for others in a thousand little ways.
As people choose to be content with doing little, in the end they might find that actually God is doing much through them. If people give their assent to being humbled, to becoming less than they have been, they can come to find God doing great things through them.
When much is accomplished through those who are little, God receives the glory due to Him, since He is performing the great works. Through the little, God is glorified.
When God is glorified, praised, and adored, we find the greatness for which we were made. If you wish to become great, become little.
* Matthew 22:39; Mark 12:31; Luke 10:27; Leviticus 19:18; Romans 13:9; Galatians 5:14
We see so little. So much there is we do not see.
What we do is little, yet it can matter so much. It might seem to matter little, but out of just a little can come so much.
What we do might matter little to us. Yet it might matter a great deal to someone else.
I am not speaking merely in theoretical terms here. I have seen this truth demonstrated right in front of my very eyes.
I am thinking of a generous person I know named Amy. Amy likes to make desserts for people. Recently Amy made a pie for someone who was turning 43, who said no one had ever made her a dessert for her birthday.
We can think that we are doing something routine and normal and ordinary and therefore that what we are doing does not matter much. However, we might find out that what we have done is much more special than we had thought, and gives much more love to a person than she has previously received. In the little presents we give, we might be extending much more kindness, with much more of a nurturing and caring effect than we realize.
Unlike people who do not see that little acts of love can have great effects on others, Amy recognizes that every dessert she makes is an opportunity to love her neighbor as herself,* just as Jesus taught us to do. She bakes treats for people since she seeks to love others. She seizes little chances to serve her neighbor.
When we perform little acts of kindness for our neighbor, we follow the little way of Saint Therese of Lisieux, whose feast day we celebrate today. Saint Therese sought to get to Heaven by making herself little, by making little sacrifices, by showing her love for others in a thousand little ways.
As people choose to be content with doing little, in the end they might find that actually God is doing much through them. If people give their assent to being humbled, to becoming less than they have been, they can come to find God doing great things through them.
When much is accomplished through those who are little, God receives the glory due to Him, since He is performing the great works. Through the little, God is glorified.
When God is glorified, praised, and adored, we find the greatness for which we were made. If you wish to become great, become little.
* Matthew 22:39; Mark 12:31; Luke 10:27; Leviticus 19:18; Romans 13:9; Galatians 5:14
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