Tiny things matter.

The tiniest things, the little seeds, the often overlooked places. They matter.

We usually don’t know when and how and why they matter, but they do. 

Think about a time when someone said just the right word to uplift you at a time when you really needed it. The time you were in a hurry at the grocery store and someone said “go ahead” with a warm smile. Or perhaps the other way around, when you were pleasant rather than grumpy, offered a kind smile rather than a judgmental smirk. Tiny things that make a difference.

The Kingdom of God is like a mustard seed. Jesus didn’t say the Kingdom of God was like a full-grown mustard bush, where the birds take shelter, but rather the seed, a seed so small that it seems inconsequential, like it can’t possibly matter, but it takes root and grows in ways we don’t understand, turning into something of importance. 

We don’t always see the results of our tiny things. The impact of the little kindness, the simple act, might never be known to us, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t real. And if we believe that our warm smiles can change the world, perhaps we’ll use them more frequently.

Years ago, when I graduated college, I went to work for Bell Laboratories in New Jersey. One day, during the first year I worked there, I received an invitation to breakfast with Arno Penzias, a Nobel Prize-winning scientist who confirmed the Big Bang, the origins of the universe. This guy was rock-star famous, the chief scientist at Bell Labs at the time, and he tried to meet as many of the new scientists as possible by having breakfast with a dozen or so each week. I was excited, and nervous, as I walked into the area of the cafeteria where the breakfast was being held. And this incredibly nice, welcoming man greeted me, seemed genuinely interested in meeting me, and put me totally at ease. A tiny thing.

But what I remember most about that breakfast was the story he told. He had been asked to give a talk at a scientific conference, and he decided to talk about microscopic gears. Bell Labs had recently fabricated the smallest gears made at that time, so small they couldn’t be seen with the human eye, smaller than a human hair. So he had some of the scientists put some in a glass petri dish with a cover, because he was going to pass it around during his talk.

The morning of the presentation, he left his house and stumbled on the sidewalk. His bag fell to the ground, the petri dish flew out, and when it landed on the grass it popped open. This, he said, caused him a dilemma. There was no way he could know if the gears were still in the petri dish or not - they weren’t visible to the naked eye - so what should he do? He decided to continue on, to pass around the petri dish, to talk about the tiny gears, and hope for the best.

The presentation went well, and everyone was amazed at what they couldn’t see. They could imagine the eventual uses for tiny gears in microscopic medical devices and other technologies. But they couldn’t see the gears themselves. A tiny thing. Not even visible, but with a potentially enormous impact.

Later, Arno said, he was pondering the result of the open petri dish on his front lawn. He humorously wondered if somewhere in the dirt, there was a colony of ants who suddenly received an incredible gift from the skies. Perhaps there were ants that received those gears, studied them, and someday in the future a mechanized group of ants will emerge from the front lawn. 

That may never happen, just like we may never know the impact of our tiny things. But they matter in ways beyond our wildest imagination. 

God Bless! -Deacon Mark

Ackermann Playlot Playdates 

Come check in with your friends this summer.  There will be an informal meet up for families on the playlot on June 8, July 13 and August 13 at 10am. Bring a cup of coffee and a juice box to catch up with friends.

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