Little Things Make Big Differences

Do the little things matter? Why try if you can’t start a movement and make a big difference?

Today, Jesus says that the Kingdom is like a mustard seed—which is really, really, small—that’s planted in a garden.

That little seed will one day be able to hold all the birds of the sky.

He also says it’s like a tiny bit of yeast, which is put in a bit of flour.

With time, the whole thing becomes a big loaf of bread.

In other words, Jesus is saying that the Kingdom comes about through the little things.

They eventually add up and become great things.

This reminds me of an image I saw online.

In this photo, a bunch of matches are lined up. The ones on the left side have been lit. And, as you’d expect, the fire starts to move down the row, except . . . one match has been pulled down so its head doesn’t line up with the other match heads. This is enough to stop the fire from spreading to the matches on the right side.

That one little difference made a huge difference.

This is what the Kingdom is like. 

The Reading

It is like a grain of mustard, which a man took and cast into his own garden, and it grew and became like a tree, and the birds of the sky took up lodging in its branches.” And again he said, “To what may I liken the Kingdom of God? It is like yeast, which a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, until the whole was leavened.”
And he traveled on throughout cities and villages, teaching and making his journey to Jerusalem. And someone said to him, “Lord, is it the case that those being saved are few?” And he said to them, “Strive to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not have the strength. From the time the master of the house rises and closes the door, you then begin to stand outside and to knock upon the door, saying, ‘Lord, open it for us,’ and in reply he will say to you, ‘I do not know you, where you come from.’ Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank before you, and you taught in our streets.’ And, speaking to you, he will proclaim, ‘I do not know where you come from; stand away from me, all workers of injustice.’ There will be weeping and the grinding of teeth when you see Abraham and Israel and Jacob and all the prophets in the Kingdom of God, but yourselves driven outside. And they will come from east and west, and from north and south, and will recline at table in the Kingdom of God. (Luke 13:19-29)