When Small is Big

Tom Barnard

 

“If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain,

‘Remove hence to yonder place;’ and it shall remove;

and nothing will be impossible unto you.”

(Matthew 17:20 KJV)

 

There is a Turkish proverb that reads, “A small key opens big doors.” That’s logical, isn’t it? But human nature tends to argue that “Bigger is better.” Have you ever seen a photograph of a skinny sumo wrestler? They don’t exist. The word “skinny” is never used to describe these huge wrestlers. The average weight of a professional sumo wrestler is around 412 pounds (up from 317 in 1953). Sumo wrestlers are obsessed with size; they all want to get bigger. For them, bigger is always better.

 

But Jesus often spoke about small things being big. Perhaps the finest example of his interest in smallness is found in the verse above. Mustard seeds are small—very small. Almost invisible to the naked eye.

 

The best example of a small musical instrument is the piccolo, a member of the woodwind family of instruments. The name in Italian means “small.” It is a “half-size flute,” according to Wikipedia. While it has a similar fingering design as the flute, it produces sound an octave higher. It has been said that the piccolo is the highest-pitched instrument in an orchestra or band.

 

Some musical compositions for orchestra feature the piccolo at key points in the performance. The Boston Pops closes most of its concerts with the playing of “Stars and Stripes Forever,” by John Phillip Sousa. It has one magnificent part where the piccolo section stands out.

 

Richard Love tells a story about the importance of the piccolo. As the story goes, conductor Sir Michael Costa was holding a rehearsal with orchestra when he noticed that the piccolo player was not playing. Costa stopped everything and asked, “Where is the piccolo?” Commenting on this, Love said, “The sound of that one small instrument was necessary to the harmony, and the master conductor missed it when it dropped out…To the conductor there are no insignificant instruments in an orchestra. Sometimes the smallest and seemingly least important one can make the greatest contribution….”

 

To God, there are no insignificant believers. Everybody counts. Young…old...educated…uneducated…rich…poor…talented…untalented…short…tall…handsome…plain-looking. All are important to God. Jesus died for all. And when one of us “players” stops playing, our absence is immediately noted by God.

 

Heavenly Father, sometimes I feel that I am under-utilized, under-recognized, under-appreciated, under-everything. I stop praying, believing, showing up, performing my assigned tasks. When this happens, I pray that you will stop me in my tracks and remind me that Jesus died for me! Amen.