Dustin Hoffman once starred in a movie titled “Little Big Man”. My thoughts today have less to do with little and big men, and more to do with little and big things. Let me explain.
In just over one month, my wife and I are expecting the arrival of our seventh grandson. The remarkable thing is that every single one of them will have been born within the last four and a half years. That’s an average of one new grandson every eight months. Any way you look at it, we have truly been blessed!
And the blessings just keep on coming. Each new day has its share of these blessings as yet another thing happens in one or the other of their lives that that warms our hearts. The Old Testament Prophet Isaiah (chapter 11, verse 6) speaks of the time when little children will lead adults; and daily, our grandsons lead my wife and me into one joyous moment after another.
I once read somewhere that the human brain grows at an exponential rate in the first few years of life. Needless to say, therefore, that each of my grandsons is learning by leaps and bounds with every passing day. One can almost hear the synapses in their little brain cells clicking as their neurons continuously make connections, recording each new observation and its resultant conclusion in the process.
But they are not the only ones learning. The truth is that my wife and I find ourselves continuously learning from them even as they learn from life itself.
We have observed that all their senses are extremely acute. To begin with, they explore most everything by their sense of taste. Sooner or later, in the earliest months of life, most everything they encounter will find its way into their mouths. But their ears also work quite well; as it is obvious that they never fail to miss the slightest noise that is any way out of the ordinary.
As they progress, of course, their ears pick up on words, which they soon convey to their mouths, and then eventually repeat. For this reason, all of us, parents and grandparents alike, have had to learn to be careful with just exactly what we have to say!
But the sharpest of their senses seems to be their eyesight. Granted that they are all much closer to the ground, and therefore, more easily able to spot things down low from that level; but they are forever finding the smallest of things on the floor - a spec of lint, a crumb, a lady bug, a piece of dirt cast off from someone’s shoe, etc…
And when they find them, they seem to know instinctively that these things do not properly belong in the environment. Even when they are too young to articulate what it is that they desire to communicate, they either pick these things up and bring them to you, or else they come and grab you by the hand and lead you to the spot where the object lies in order to point it out to you. Either way, they do so grunting and gesticulating all the while.
In this simple behavior, of course, they clearly demonstrate that they have a sense of right and wrong. Something is amiss; and they know it! Granted, that, in and of itself, is a good thing. Nonetheless, the irony is that even as they focus on the littlest of things being out of place, they remain blissfully ignorant of far greater things going on around them. A hurricane could be blowing outside; and they would never know it, even as they focus on a dead fly lying on the windowsill.
Is there a lesson in all of this for you and me? Perhaps so; for it is arguable that obsessing over little things while remaining oblivious to far bigger things is simply the sign of a lack of maturity. Let me be clear. I am not faulting my grandsons here. I behaved much the same as they do at their age. But as I grew and matured, I focused less and less on little, inconsequential things, and more and more on bigger and more consequential things.
I say this because it strikes me that any number of people out there spend their lives obsessing over little, inconsequential things even as they fail to take note of far bigger and far more consequential matters!
In his First New Testament Letter to the Christians at the Church in Corinth (chapter 13, verse 11) the Apostle Paul once made the following statement: “When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. But when I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.”
And there you have it! We live in a world full of little things – things that, at first glance, admittedly may seem consequential, but in reality are of little to no consequence in light of other things that really do matter. And a sure sign of maturity in the life a believer is that he or she eventually grasps this very principle; and then moves on, and begins to focus on those things that really do matter!
In light of this, my prayer, not only for my grandsons, but also for my wife and me, is that there comes a time in life when we all move beyond merely focusing on and obsessing on the little, inconsequential things in life, and begin focusing and obsessing instead on those things that really do matter - chief among them matters of eternal consequence!
SCRIPTURE SOURCES: https://biblehub.com/isaiah/11-6.htm;
and https://biblehub.com/1_corinthians/13-11.htm.
SEE ALSO: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065988/.
In just over one month, my wife and I are expecting the arrival of our seventh grandson. The remarkable thing is that every single one of them will have been born within the last four and a half years. That’s an average of one new grandson every eight months. Any way you look at it, we have truly been blessed!
And the blessings just keep on coming. Each new day has its share of these blessings as yet another thing happens in one or the other of their lives that that warms our hearts. The Old Testament Prophet Isaiah (chapter 11, verse 6) speaks of the time when little children will lead adults; and daily, our grandsons lead my wife and me into one joyous moment after another.
I once read somewhere that the human brain grows at an exponential rate in the first few years of life. Needless to say, therefore, that each of my grandsons is learning by leaps and bounds with every passing day. One can almost hear the synapses in their little brain cells clicking as their neurons continuously make connections, recording each new observation and its resultant conclusion in the process.
But they are not the only ones learning. The truth is that my wife and I find ourselves continuously learning from them even as they learn from life itself.
We have observed that all their senses are extremely acute. To begin with, they explore most everything by their sense of taste. Sooner or later, in the earliest months of life, most everything they encounter will find its way into their mouths. But their ears also work quite well; as it is obvious that they never fail to miss the slightest noise that is any way out of the ordinary.
As they progress, of course, their ears pick up on words, which they soon convey to their mouths, and then eventually repeat. For this reason, all of us, parents and grandparents alike, have had to learn to be careful with just exactly what we have to say!
But the sharpest of their senses seems to be their eyesight. Granted that they are all much closer to the ground, and therefore, more easily able to spot things down low from that level; but they are forever finding the smallest of things on the floor - a spec of lint, a crumb, a lady bug, a piece of dirt cast off from someone’s shoe, etc…
And when they find them, they seem to know instinctively that these things do not properly belong in the environment. Even when they are too young to articulate what it is that they desire to communicate, they either pick these things up and bring them to you, or else they come and grab you by the hand and lead you to the spot where the object lies in order to point it out to you. Either way, they do so grunting and gesticulating all the while.
In this simple behavior, of course, they clearly demonstrate that they have a sense of right and wrong. Something is amiss; and they know it! Granted, that, in and of itself, is a good thing. Nonetheless, the irony is that even as they focus on the littlest of things being out of place, they remain blissfully ignorant of far greater things going on around them. A hurricane could be blowing outside; and they would never know it, even as they focus on a dead fly lying on the windowsill.
Is there a lesson in all of this for you and me? Perhaps so; for it is arguable that obsessing over little things while remaining oblivious to far bigger things is simply the sign of a lack of maturity. Let me be clear. I am not faulting my grandsons here. I behaved much the same as they do at their age. But as I grew and matured, I focused less and less on little, inconsequential things, and more and more on bigger and more consequential things.
I say this because it strikes me that any number of people out there spend their lives obsessing over little, inconsequential things even as they fail to take note of far bigger and far more consequential matters!
In his First New Testament Letter to the Christians at the Church in Corinth (chapter 13, verse 11) the Apostle Paul once made the following statement: “When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. But when I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.”
And there you have it! We live in a world full of little things – things that, at first glance, admittedly may seem consequential, but in reality are of little to no consequence in light of other things that really do matter. And a sure sign of maturity in the life a believer is that he or she eventually grasps this very principle; and then moves on, and begins to focus on those things that really do matter!
In light of this, my prayer, not only for my grandsons, but also for my wife and me, is that there comes a time in life when we all move beyond merely focusing on and obsessing on the little, inconsequential things in life, and begin focusing and obsessing instead on those things that really do matter - chief among them matters of eternal consequence!
SCRIPTURE SOURCES: https://biblehub.com/isaiah/11-6.htm;
and https://biblehub.com/1_corinthians/13-11.htm.
SEE ALSO: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065988/.