Author and former Congressman Bruce Barton (1886-1967) famously said, “Sometimes when I consider what tremendous consequences come from little things, I am tempted to think that there are no little things.” If ever a generation ought to be aware of this, it ought to be ours.
The problems of the world, everyone keeps saying, are so massive as to be overwhelming. Professor John H. Bunzel, former president of San Jose State university, saw it this way: “We are living in a time of irony and immense paradox. It has been said that the biggest problems in the world are really so tiny—the atom, the ovum, and a touch of pigment.” We are so conditioned to look for the spectacular and the dramatic that we are apt to overlook the possibilities that lie in the small.
When conductor Leonard Bernstein was a boy, his father strenuously opposed his choice of music as a career.
“Of course,” said Bernstein, “if anybody said to him now that he had ever stood in the way of my music, he wouldn’t deny it, but he has a way of rationalizing. He had a marvelous line that was quoted in some interview: ‘Well, how was I supposed to know that he was Leonard Bernstein!’”
Who knows the possibilities that lie in a little boy or girl? Little seeds can grow into great trees. Little sparks can grow great fires and little boys and girls can grow into great men and women.
Jesus specializes in turning little things into great things. When we give our lives to him, no matter how insignificant they may seem, he helps us reach our highest potential.