Lynn Jones: Seeing big things in small things
By Lynn Jones
On Dec. 17, 1903, Orville Wright made the first airplane flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. The flight was short and brief. It covered 120 feet and lasted only 12 seconds. Later that same day Wilbur Wright flew the plane 852 feet in a flight that lasted 59 seconds.
When word of these flights was relayed to their hometown of Dayton, Ohio, the editor of the local paper was unimpressed. It is reported that when he heard the news, he leaned back in his chair, stretched his arms, and yawned. “If they had kept it in the air for an hour,” he said, “that might have been news.” Then he turned again to his work of printing important news. By 59 minutes, the Wright brothers missed the chance of getting into the local paper the next day; but in that one minute they changed the world forever.
Vision is needed to spot important things in our world. And vision is not something that is arrived at through a well-ground lens. Vision is dependent upon how we interpret what we see. Anais Nin said, “We don’t see things as they are. We see things as we are.”
Jesus was always seeing things of importance around Him. His disciples were always missing them. On one occasion they were in the Temple area. Jesus sat down to watch how the people gave their money. In a little while, He called all His disciples to Him and pointed out a little widow who had slipped two small copper coins into the collection box. Jesus said, “She has given more than anyone today.” The disciples would later try to call Jesus’ attention to the massive buildings that made up the Temple complex. Jesus was unimpressed. He said that in a few years there would not be a stone left upon a stone in this area. One of our challenges is to see the way Jesus sees and to evaluate things the way He evaluates them.
In 1836, in the little village of Rushville, New York, Marcus Whitman heard the call of God to missions in the Northwest, and, with his new wife Narcissa, set out as a missionary to Oregon. Later that year, the pastor of the church in Rushville wrote about the church’s year. He wrote, “Nothing important ever happens here. We had one addition to the church this year, but he married one of our finest young women, and now they are both gone.” The pastor’s lack of vision prevented his ability to see the mighty ways God would use that young couple in the Northwest in the coming years.
Seeing God at work in small things is a key to being involved in the great things of the kingdom. May God make us people of vision and sensitivity who can spot big things in small things around us.
Lynn Jones is a retired pastor who lives in Oxford. He does supply preaching for churches in his area and often serves as an interim pastor. Jones is also an author, has written two books and writes a weekly newspaper column. He may be contacted at: kljones45@yahoo.com.
