Focus on the Little Things

Tom Barnard

or more than eighty years William T. Davis lived on Staten Island, New York. He was born during the American Civil War (1862) and died in the year that World War II came to an end (1945). He was intimately familiar with all the main roads and back roads of Staten Island, and it was said that he knew the whereabouts of the rarest wildflowers in the area as well as the annual arrivals and departures of the birds that populated the region.

Although he never left Staten Island, Davis became world-famous as an entomologist and historian. He was one of those rare self-taught individuals who became widely-known and wealthy by focusing on the things very close to him. Besides writing many books dealing with the natural history of Staten Island, he concentrated on one very unimpressive insect, the cicada. Cicadas are found around the world, but most of them live in temperate zones and are sometimes colloquially called “locusts.” Why Davis selected this insect as his obsession is a mystery, but the singularity of his commitment to the study of something so small is not surprising.

Another man with a commitment to things small was Jean Henri Fabre (1823-1915), a peasant-born Frenchman. Similarly interested in insects, he spent most of his life exploring a pebbly acre or two near his home in Aveyron in Southern France, studying the insects that populated the area. Scientists of his day preferred a “clinical study” of insects—trapping them in their natural habitat and pinning them on boards for individual observation in classrooms and laboratories. Fabre preferred studying them in their natural, live settings. In one of his famous experiments, he arranged a group of living caterpillars in a continuous loop around the edge of a clay jar. Fabre wrote: “As each caterpillar instinctively followed the silken trail of the caterpillars in front of it, the group moved around in a circle for seven days.” (in The Life of the Caterpillar. New York: Boni & Liveright, 1925).

A third, focused man was Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862). He was not simple-minded, but he lived the simple life in a hut in Concord, Massachusetts. He became famous as an author, poet, naturalist, historian, philosopher, abolitionist, surveyor, and proponent of civil disobedience. His most famous book, Walden, was based on his reflections of simple living in natural surroundings. His quotations are legendary. Here is one: “A man’s interest in a single bluebird is worth more than a complete but dry list of the fauna and flora of a town.”

The Apostle Paul also focused on singular subjects. In his letter to the Church at Philippi (3:13, 14) Paul said, “Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it (spiritual perfection). But this one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” (Emphasis mine).

Little can be very good. The boy’s lunch (Matthew 14:17) was small—five biscuits and two anchovies—but they were enough for Jesus. He multiplied that simple lunch to feed thousands. When God asked Moses what he had in his hand, he replied, “Just a shepherd’s staff.” It was enough to lead the Children of Israel to the Promised Land.

What is in your hand? Insignificant? Perfect. God turns insignificant things into powerful things. Here is how song-writer Kittie L. Suffield pictured it:

Does the place you’re called to labor seem so small and little known?

It is great if God is in it, and He’ll not forget His own.

Little is much, when God is in it! Labor not for wealth or fame.

There’s a crown—and you can win it, if you go in Jesus’ name.

Follow the simple way today. It will get you where you want to go.