One Small Act of Love

In the Gospel of Mark (4:26-34), Jesus tells the crowds that the kingdom of God is like a seed scattered on the ground — and it grows on its own. In fact, it is like a tiny mustard seed: small, but once started, it has a way of taking over everything else. Like kudzu — small, but unstoppable.

What's clear in this series of parables is that the results are beyond our control. If a seed grows at all, it grows on its own timetable. You can't force it. Sometimes people will respond, sometimes they won't. Sometimes we'll see the fruit of our work — but sometimes we won't. Like the sower, our job is to keep sowing. Keep throwing those seeds out, trusting that God is at work even in the little things. Because you never know.

I was recently reading about a food drive at a school in rural Appalachia. A volunteer sorting through donated food reached into a box of cans and pulled out a little brown paper bag. Out of it fell a peanut butter sandwich, an apple, and a cookie — items that weren't on the suggested list. Crayoned in large letters was a little girl's name: "Christy, Room 104." While at school, Christy had felt moved to give up her own lunch for someone who was truly hungry.

When the story got out, donations to that food drive skyrocketed. One small act of love by a child inspired countless others.

Archbishop and twentieth-century martyr Oscar Romero once wrote:

This is what we are about: We plant seeds that one day will grow. We water seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise. We lay foundations that will need further development. We provide yeast that produces effects beyond our capabilities. We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that. This enables us to do something, and to do it very well. It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning — a step along the way, an opportunity for God's grace to enter and do the rest.

Prayer: Loving God, we don't often see the results of our small actions. But we pray today that you would take whatever we have to offer — bless and multiply every dollar given, every hour volunteered, every sacrifice made. May these be seeds of your eternal kingdom. In Christ's name. Amen.

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