Norris Burkes writes thought provoking essays about real life and God. This essay talks about almost losing his daughter to a bee sting, but her new boyfriend thought fast enough to be aware. I like the analogy he gives with it.

…The whole thing got me thinking how we constantly obsess over the cataclysmic possibilities of life and pay little attention to the common stings that life is capable of delivering.

For instance, when it comes to family, we obsess over the possibility of losing a child to illness, accident or shark attack. We worry about monumental things such as losing the house to the current mortgage crisis, or being laid off in this recession we’re not supposed to be having.

In our prayer life, we say multiple prayers designed to stave off calamity, but we fail to pray for the everyday things like marriages, families and relationships. These are the areas that, if unattended, can deliver powerful stings…

When it comes to the devastatingly debilitating catastrophes of life, we know how to employ our prayers and our faith, but those faith principles also apply in the little things.

In fact, I submit they probably matter most in the little things. We may feel that God is too big for the small things in our lives, but in reality, God is so big that he can be in every small detail of our lives — before they become the big things.

W — or Warren Schaefer as I now call him — could have easily ignored the seemingly insignificant sting of a garden variety bee. But he didn’t. He saw in the small sting the capacity to do a much more devastating act.

He saw the significance of the little thing. May we all seek such wisdom in our everyday lives.

You can read the entire essay at Norris Burkes website. I have a link on the front page here also so you can check out what he’s written periodically.

Karin

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