LITTLE THINGS BUILD BIG PARTNERSHIPS
Little things mean a lot. Most big things are made up of a lot of little things working together. Don’t ever get so big in life that you can’t participate in doing the little things. Little becomes a lot when God is in it! It even becomes the possibility of a partnership!
Jackson McKie is 8 years old and suffers from hydrocephalus. Dr. Daniel McNeely was preparing to operate on him. Jackson entered the operating room holding a toy, his furry friend, “Little Baby.” Jackson explained to Dr. McNeely that there was a little tear under the bear’s arm and wanted to know if he could fix it. So, after repairing a shunt in Jackson’s brain, he stitched up Little Baby. The surgery was successful on both Jackson and Little Baby! Jackson was more interested in Little Baby’s surgery than his own.
A famous neurosurgeon responded to a simple request, and it helped in the healing of a little boy. Often in life, we learn like Dr. McNeely that the best result doesn’t come from some extraordinary talent that we display but from some little thing that we do in response to the need of another person. Stitching a fuzzy friend enhanced the effectiveness of a little boy’s surgery.
Billy Flanigan has been an entertainer at Walt Disney World for almost 40 years. During the pandemic, he decided to get on his bicycle and go from place to place and do a song and dance routine. He started by visiting his friends all over Florida. Then he got on his bike and made a cross-country road trip to surprise friends in Texas, Arizona, and Los Angeles. Some of them had heard what he was doing and were hoping he would include them. Flanigan says, “I love to make people smile. If I can brighten someone’s day, I want to do it!”
Most of us can do something to brighten other people’s days. We can either sit and complain or we can get up and use our talents to help people smile. Everybody needs to smile more. In tough times, it’s easier to frown than to smile. Everybody needs somebody who can bring out a smile. Have you ever noticed how much better people look when they’re smiling? And it’s hard to make somebody smile without smiling yourself.
Latonya Young is a 43-year-old Georgia resident who dropped out of high school at age 16. She earned her GED in 2007 and enrolled at Georgia State in 2010 to earn a college degree. When she hit financial troubles and Georgia State couldn’t offer financial assistance, she got a job as an Uber driver.
In May 2018, she had the good fortune to pick up Kevin Esch as a passenger at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. During their conversation and many of his questions, she related her situation, and Kevin was touched by her story. Kevin then paid the school debt Latonya had so she could continue. She received her degree at the end of 2019. At graduation, Kevin sat with Latonya’s family and celebrated her accomplishment.
Offering a stitch, a smile, or a statement of concern – all of these little things can make a big difference in somebody’s life. If you think you can’t do big things, do little things in a big way!
Think about this – doing something for another person might place you in a position where God is using you to answer the prayers of somebody who has prayed for the person you are helping. That will make you a partner with God, and being God’s partner is a big, big thing!
Read I Thessalonians 5:11; II Samuel 11:25, I Peter 4:13, Hebrews 3:1, II Corinthians 8:23
