Seas

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"I found it is the small everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay.  Small acts of kindness and love."   Gandalf,   The Hobbit

When I moving across international borders, or even within large US airports, this feeling of smallness seeps in.   The sense of small does not provoke desperation, but rather breathes freedom as I settle in to my place as one in a sea of billions.

Man buns and man purses surround me,  iPhones and Galaxies,  heads bowed low, news blaring with a few heads shaking or nodding depending upon political leaning.     I see every color of skin - from wheat-colored to chestnut,  from olive to rose... and I am touched.

   

90% of the people I see are using some type of  'device'... connected through the screen, disconnected to the surroundings.    This cultural shift perplexes me, as I simultaneously grow aware of my own screen addiction.   Do we feel the need to make ourselves appear more important as we answer messages?   Do we somehow feel larger and less dispensable?   

Airports, buses, mass transit... a reminder of the beautiful diversity of appearance and opinion that is humanity on planet Earth.    I'm awed to be small; to just be a part of it all.  Aren't you?

There seems to be a growing popularity in Christian circles (whatever that means) to do big things for God... to really do something radical.    While I love the idea and the  inspiration to courageous living,  for me, courage just means doing the one small thing in front of me followed by the next small thing.

I find comfort in being small.   I ponder God's purposes - He uses all of His small things to make something largely lovely.     We need not search for a large purpose or platform.   

A storm delays our plane;   this large plane, prize of engineering, stopped short by the power of thunder's roar and lightening's danger. The 120+ group of humanity stopped in our tracks, plans thwarted and illusion of control somehow shaken loose for a brief moment.     We are small, like it or not.

Repeatedly, God choose the small, the mustard seed faith, the honey bee and the child.    He loves to prove His point with the lowly, the weak and the ones who appear 'less than' in the eyes of the world.

   

Grateful for this day, the faces I've seen,  the time to write, the space to think and the beauty discovered again in His disregard for color, shape and size.   

Go do your small things with great love and cheer on the small warriors in your midst!  To God be the glory!