Thursday, June 18, 2015

The Little Things



A couple of days ago, I ventured in to the park that is behind our home.  Now, that normally isn’t a big deal, but this was in the evening, and there were several reasons why it may have been unusual.  First, we’ve had lots of rain and the mosquito numbers are enormous.  Second, because we’ve had lots of rain, there’s lots of mud in the paths of the park, which is a nature park of woods, native grasses, etc…not a park like children play in.  Third, the creek that runs through the park was flooding due to heavy rains.  So it was a bit unusual.  In fact, I saw no one else in the park.  I probably was pretty much on my own.  My purpose was o check out the swollen creek, so I sprayed on lots of DEET, put on some old shoes, and went in.
I did view the creek.  It wasn’t out of its banks where I viewed it, but the channel there was about 12 feet deep, and the creek had risen to within a couple of feet of the top of the channel.  Normally, it’s just a relative trickle in the bottom of the channel.  But it’s the other things I found that made the trek sort of special.
As I looked around, I took notice of several small things that were around me.  A snail no more than an inch long at the edge of the path happily munching on dinner.  Small, flowering plants with delicate flowers nestled alongside native grasses.  One flower no bigger than a dime had a bug on it munching away.  The bug had to have been no larger than a small peppercorn.  Pathways in the woods that seemed to be especially lit in the evening sun.  Hundreds and hundreds of some kind of moth that evidently liked the cedar trees.
That walk in the park was a good lesson for me to notice the small things in life.  All too often (and you know where this is going), we are looking for the stupendous…the colossal…the out-of-this-world.  We fail to notice the delicate…the fragile…the slight.
It’s the same in how we live.  We crave the highs in life.  We look longingly for the next buzz.  We move quickly toward the stimulating.  We don’t appreciate the little things that are all around us and are what makes life worth living.
Little things, like a bug on a flower in the woods.  Little things, like decently clean air to breathe.  Little things, like not having to wonder where our next meal will come from.  Little things, like the unconditional love of a close friend, relative, or spouse.  Little things.
It’s the small things in life that come our way every minute of the day that make life what it is for us.  To an extent, we have control over what some of those little things are.  But many are those that are just there…placed there by a loving God who knows that it’s the little things that make life whole and good.