When I was a child, I was one of the smallest kids in my class at school and, because I was the youngest in my family, I was smaller than anyone else in my house, too. Somewhere along the line I had a t-shirt that read” Great Things Come in Small Packages.”
Naming gratitude for the small things in life that make us happy or those things that are comforting, is one way of overcoming the darkness that is the world around us, whether we experience that darkness
through the international headlines that declare Malaysia Flight 370, and all of the people who were its passengers and crew, fell into the South India Ocean, or that tensions appear to be escalating between western countries, Russia and the Ukraine;
or through the local news of another person shot and killed, another Amber Alert for a child missing and endangered, another life lost to addiction;
or through the way in which our lives are woven together so that the loss of one person’s father or brother is the loss of another person’s pastor or mentor; the loss of one mother’s son is the loss of another trusted colleague’s child; the loss of one person’s sister to disease strengthens our resolve to fight harder to find cures and compels us to walk or run in honor of the fallen.
The things we name may be small, but they hold the promise of great things to come. We name what we can recognize as good because the naming sustains our hope that we can, and will overcome the darkness. That darkness and brokenness will not triumph.
I cannot answer, “Why do bad things happen?” beyond acknowledging that we live in a broken world, in a world that is natural and physical and chaotic, and a world where we are very, very good at hurting each other. I find my hope in believing that we are not abandoned to a life limited by what we know. I believe God is greater and we have hope for a world where healing, reconciliation and restoration will reign.
For today, I find my hope in naming the small things:
- the cunning of my cat who watches the aquarium as though it’s her own sushi bar
- the tenacity of my chocolate lab who carries a ball everywhere
- the joy of hearing my daughters laugh
- the luxury of sleeping in when there’s a snow delay
- the blessing of the arrival of a newborn
- the singing of favorite hymns
- the surprise of stories I am hearing for the first time
- the comfort of heat, hot water and electric lights
- the way a good book transports you in time and place
- the gathering of a community to shelter the hurting and comfort the grieving.
I hope you will name the things in your life that sustain your hope, and if you are struggling to name them, find hope in one of the ones I have named.
