A splinter in a child’s fingers.
On the scale of world events, that splinter doesn’t matter even the smallest amount. There are starving children in Third-World countries with distended bellies whose only wish is for a bite of food. They wouldn’t notice something as small as a sliver of wood penetrating the skin.
Yet when pierced by pain, that splinter becomes the child’s world. There is no disaster greater, and our hearts are broken by the tears we see running down that tender face. What seems unimportant to the world is everything to that child, and our hearts are broken in response. That splinter matters more than we can say, and we set everything aside to make it right.
What seems unimportant to the world matters to a tender heart.
Luke tells us the story of Martha and Mary. Sisters, they nevertheless held different mindsets. One was focused on the necessities of everyday living, and the other was focused on the necessities of the heart. In Luke 10:40, at a crisis of contention, Martha wails her dismay to Jesus.
“But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him, and said, Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Bid her therefore that she help me.”
Mary was at Jesus’ feet soaking in his teaching. To Martha, her sister was wasting her time when she had better things to do. Mary was taken up with unimportant matters, when there were chores to be done.
Jesus saw things differently. What’s unimportant to the unchurched and unsaved are the very matters we need to pay attention to: the teachings of Christ; love for our fellow man; and the worship of our almighty God. If the necessities of everyday living are left undone, and we focus on the necessities of the heart, then we’ve found what matters most in our relationship with God and with our fellow man.
It’s the seemingly unimportant matters that matter most when we have the opportunity to kneel at Jesus’ feet. Every day we are given a choice we must make. Kneel in prayer, or scrub the floor one extra time. Read in our Bible, or complete that extra report for our job. Bake a cake to share with our neighbor, or store up an extra few dollars in the cookie jar.
What are the important things that really matter? We must weigh our choices, because we are the ones that get to choose.
Let’s work our chores around the people we love, not work the people we love around our chores.
Copyright © 2016 MyChurchNotes.net
Originally Published 1-31-16 in Relationships