God Does Big Things with Small Deeds
God Does Big Things with Small Deeds - Audio/Visual
Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin. (Zechariah 4:10)
World War II had utterly destroyed Germany, and citizens were desperate for supplies. Russia had reduced Berlin's buildings to skeletons and sought to do the same to the German people. Russia blockaded food-bearing trucks, trains and boats, and without help the city would soon starve to death. The United States and British militaries responded with the 1948 Berlin airlift. For eleven months, these allies airdropped tons of food to the 2.5 million West Berliners who had been stranded by the Russion occupation. Gail Halvorsen piloted one of those planes for the United States.
After landing in Berlin one day, the twenty-seven-year-old Halvorsen talked with thirty or so German children through a barbed-wire fence. Though hungry and needy, they neither begged nor complained. Impressed, Halvorsen reached into his pocket, produced two sticks of gum, broke them in half and handed the pieces through the wire. "Those kids looked like they had just received a million bucks," he remembered. "They put that tiny piece of paper to their noses and smelled the aroma. They were on cloud nine. I stood there dumbfounded." Touched by their plight, Halvorsen promised to return the next day and drop more gum from his plane. But with supply flights landing every half hour or so, the children asked how they'd recognize him. "I'll wiggle my wings," he replied.
Halvorsen returned to Rhein-Main Air Force Base and bought gum and candy rations from his buddies. He tied the sweets to tiny handkerchief parachutes, loaded them on his C-54 transport and, true to his word, wiggled his wings over West Berlin. Kids in the city streets spotted their friend and ran to gather the falling candy. And with that, Operation Little Vittles began. Momentum mounted quickly. Within three weeks the Air Force had sanctioned the crusade, and during the following months U.S. planes dropped three tons of candy on the city. Halvorsen became known as Uncle Wiggly Wings.
Do small deeds make big differences? Halvorsen thinks so. Of greater importance, Jesus does, too. He says: "The Kingdom of Heaven is like a mustard seed planted in a field. It is the smallest of all seeds, but it becomes the largest of garden plants and grows into a tree where birds can come and find shelter in its branches." Jesus followed with this additional illustration: "The Kingdom of Heaven is like yeast used by a woman making bread. Even though she used a large amount [three measures] of flour, the yeast permeated every part of the dough." (Matt. 13:31-33)
Original listeners caught on quickly to the word pictures Jesus used in the parable because they knew about mustard seeds and leaven lumps. Both were small. For instance, a mustard seed is the size of a small freckle (it takes 750 of them to weigh the same as a paperclip), and the leaven Jesus was describing would have been no larger than the end of your thumb. Yet a tiny mustard seed can erupt and reach for the clouds, growing to three times an average person’s height, boasting bushy branches large enough to house a homeless flock of birds. And a pinch of fermented dough can feed forty people three meals a day for several days. What begins minutely ends massively.
Maybe the early church needed that reminder because what power does a tiny manger and a bloody cross carry in a forest of Jewish tradition and Greek philosophy? How can a backwoods movement headed up by a rural carpenter gain traction in a religious world dominated by Epicureans, Stoics and Gnostics? That’s like a Volkswagen trying to compete in the Daytona 500.
We, at times, fear the smallness of Jesus' story; that our puny efforts will only bear tiny results. And that fear can keep us from seed sowing. For instance, can the Sunday school account of Jesus hold its own in the Ivy League? Do terms like "sin," "salvation" and "redemption" stand a chance against today’s humanism and relativism? Apparently, they do because where are the Romans who crucified Christ, or the Epicureans who demeaned and debated Paul, or the Gnostics who mocked the early church? And the great temples of Corinth? They dwarfed the new church but do worshipers still sacrifice to Zeus? No, but believers still sing to Jesus. God does uncommon works through common deeds.
A survivor of Hurricane Katrina recounted that as the water rose around his house, this New Orleanian had to swim out of a window. With two children clinging to his back, the man eventually found safe refuge atop the tallest building in his neighborhood. Other people soon joined him on the roof. Eventually, a small circle of people huddled together on what would be their home for the next three days until they were rescued. After an hour on the building, the man realized he was perched on top of a church. He patted the rooftop and announced to the others, "We’re on holy ground, friends."
His news jogged the memory of another roof-dweller. She looked around at the area, crawled over to the steeple, hugged it and proclaimed, "My grandfather and grandmother helped build this church!" Now, do you think those grandparents ever imagined God would use their work to save their granddaughter from a flood? They surely prayed for God to use that building to save souls, but they couldn't have imagined he would use it to save their grandchild from a hurricane. Those grandparents had no idea how God would use the work of their hands. And neither do you.
What difference do small, selfless deeds make? Do you ever wonder if your work really makes a difference? At all? I'm envisioning a believer at the crossroads – one recently impacted by God somehow; maybe that’s you. The divine spark within is beginning to flame but do you douse it, or fan it? Dare you dream that you can actually make a difference? God's answer would be, "Just do something and see what happens." That's what he told the citizens of ancient Jerusalem.
For sixteen years the temple of God lay in ruins. They had abandoned the work. The reason? Opposition from enemies, and indifference from neighbors. But most of all, the job simply dwarfed them. To build the first temple, Solomon needed seventy thousand carriers, eighty thousand stonecutters, thirty-three hundred foremen, and seven years. A gargantuan task. The workers must have thought, “What difference will my work make?” God's answer: "Do not despise these small beginnings, for the LORD rejoices to see the work begin." (Zech. 4:10) Begin. See it? That’s it! Just begin. Just start. What may seem small to you might be huge for someone else. Just ask Bohn Fawkes.
Since we’re talking about World War II, Lt. Col. Fawkes piloted a B-17 during the war. On one of his missions, he sustained flak from Nazi anti-aircraft guns. Even though his gas tanks were hit, the plane didn’t explode, and Fawkes was able to land the plane safely.
On the morning following the raid, Fawkes asked his crew chief for the German shell. He wanted to keep a souvenir of his incredibly good fortune. The crew chief explained that not just one, but eleven 20-millimeter shells had been found in the gas tanks, none of which had exploded. Technicians later opened the shells and found them devoid of an explosive charge. They were harmless and, with one exception, empty. The exception contained a carefully rolled piece of paper in the shell. On it a message had been scrawled in Czech. The note read: "This is all we can do for you now." A courageous assembly-line worker was disarming the shells and had scribbled the note. He couldn't end the war, but he could save one plane. He couldn't do everything, but he could do something. So, he did what he could.
God does big things with small deeds. Against a towering giant, pebbles from a brook seem futile. But God used them to topple Goliath. Compared to the tithes of the wealthy, a widow's two coins seem puny – they were, combined, about ¼ of a penny by today’s standards. But Jesus used them to inspire us. And in contrast with sophisticated priests and powerful Roman rulers, a cross-suspended carpenter seemed nothing but a waste of a life, or wood. Few mourned his death, and only a handful of friends were around to bury his body. The people quickly turned their attention back to the temple. And why not? What power does a buried rabbi have? Well, we know the answer. Mustard-seed and leaven-lump power. Power to rise from the dead. Power to change history.
In the hands of God, small seeds grow into sheltering trees. Tiny leaven expands into nourishing loaves. Small deeds can, and do, change the world. So, sow the mustard seed. Bury the leaven lump. Make the call. Write the check. Organize the committee. Drop some gum from your airplane. Sixty years from now another soldier might follow your example. Chief Wiggles did. No, not Uncle Wiggly Wings of West Berlin fame, but Chief Wiggles of Iraq.
Like Halvorsen, his story begins with a child at a fence. And like the candy bomber, his work began by giving one gift. He noticed a little girl crying on the other side of a stretch of barbed wire in Baghdad. "She was obviously very poor, in her tattered old dress, totally worn-out plastic flip-flops, her hair matted against her head indicating she hadn't had a bath in a long time and her skin blistered from the dirt and weather." The soldier remembered some toys in his office, so he hurried and brought the girl a toothbrush, a whistle, and a toy monkey. As he gave the gifts, "her eyes lit up with such joy." He posted this experience on his Weblog and thousands of people responded asking where they could send gifts. Operation Give was born. And the soldier inherited Halvorsen's nick-name – “Chief Wiggles."
Moses had a staff. David had a sling. Samson had a jawbone. Rahab had a string. Mary had some ointment. Aaron had a rod. Dorcas had a needle. All were used by God. So, what do you have? God inhabits the tiny seed and empowers the tiny deed. John Wesley, the 18th Century founder of the Methodist church said, "Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can." Never discount the smallness of your deeds. In God’s hands, who knows how big they’ll grow.
Grace,
Randy
