“REED” This
Small is Okay
Yesterday, I unlocked and opened one of the outside doors to the church so members of the brass choir could enter for rehearsal. As I walked through the doorway into the church, I noticed there was something hopping in front of me. It was difficult to see what it was as there weren’t but a few lights on and it was quite small. I thought it was a cricket, so I tried to chase it back to the door as I didn’t want to hear a cricket chirping in the sanctuary all week. But as I got closer, I realized it was not a cricket. It was brown in color like a cricket, but it was a lizard. A very small lizard. I wanted to catch it and take a picture of it in my hand with my phone, but it kept jumping out of my hand before I could get my phone out of my pocket. At one time it stayed still long enough for me to get a good look at it as it was on the tip of my little finger. It basically fit on that small part of my finger, no more than an inch or inch and a half long. It was incredible to me that it was so small. It jumped off my finger and headed toward the doorway, so I decided to leave it alone.
Everything starts out small. I know that baby whales are big, but compared to their mothers, they are small. The little critters like this lizard are so small and are all alone when they are born. They seem so tiny and fragile, yet they can and do survive and grow into mature lizards eight to ten inches long. Many things much smaller than this lizard do the same. Yet with us, it’s different. We start out in this world very small, but we are quite helpless. We cannot walk or run. We cannot feed ourselves. We could not survive on our own. We greatly need our parents or an adult to take care of us. We are completely dependent upon someone else. As we grow, we strive to become more and more independent so that we can take care of ourselves. But we can never be truly dependent just upon ourselves. Jesus said in John 15:5, “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.” Apart from Jesus we can do nothing. Without Jesus we don’t have life. Without Jesus we don’t have strength. Without Jesus we can’t do what God has called us to do. Without Jesus we can’t do anything. We are dependent upon Jesus. When we depend upon Jesus, we have life. When we depend upon Jesus, we have strength. When we depend upon Jesus, we can accomplish the good works God has planned and called us to do. When we depend upon Jesus, we can do anything He wants us to do because He will do them through us. We may physically grow up and become independent in this world. But as maturing Christians, we know that spiritually we will always be dependent upon God.
That little lizard will find food and survive all on its own by the instincts that God has placed in it when He created it. And it will do the best it can in this one and only life it has. As humans, we may not be as independent at birth, but we have understanding because we have been created in the image of God. And with that understanding, we know this life on earth is not all there is. This life is the one and only chance we have to learn our dependence upon God. And it’s okay to be dependent upon God because He is the One that gives us everlasting life. Many will ridicule Christians for being so dependent upon God and Jesus, claiming They are just a crutch and we are weak. But I would much rather be small and depending upon God than big and depending upon myself.
“My health may fail, and my spirit may grow weak, but God remains the strength of my heart; He is mine forever.” Psalm 73:26
Bro. Paul Reed
Tuesday, September 21, 2021