Pastor Larson’s Corner: Little things mean a lot

In the parable of the mustard seed, Jesus compares the Kingdom of God with a tiny seed that grows into a very large shrub. The people to whom Jesus told this story were very familiar with the mustard seed since it was an extremely invasive plant and could easily ruin their crops. Jesus told the parable to illustrate how, although some things seem small and insignificant, they can grow to be great and powerful things. I like this parable because so many of the things we do in life are like mustard seeds. They seem small and insignificant to us when we do them, but in fact they can have a great and important effect.

Recently a friend gave me a CD he made of a record our High School choir recorded back when we were seniors. We had a wonderful choir that year and listening to the CD brought back all kinds of memories. In many ways that choir experience changed my life. I still get together with friends I made during my year in the choir. Our choir director was particularly good at recruiting students for the choir, and he had to work very hard to get me to agree to be in the choir. I must have said no to him a dozen times before he finally convinced me that it would be a good experience.

I am sure that he never thought of his persistence as being all that important to me and to my life, but it was. My experience in the choir changed many things for the better in my life. It was a small matter to him, but it had a profound and lasting effect upon me. We need to remember that the little things we do in this life for others can make a big difference. It may not seem like much to us, but God can multiply our efforts until lives are changed and made richer because we were willing to act.

Pastor Larson’s Corner is written by Jerry Larson and appears weekly in the Norwegian American Weekly.

Pastor Jerry Larson retired to his cabin in Zimmerman, Minn., after 39 years in parish ministry for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. In 2011 he published a book entitled “Speaking the Word Freely: Writing with purpose, preaching with power.” Contact him at jerlarson@visi.com

This article originally appeared in the Feb. 12, 2016, issue of the Norwegian American Weekly. To subscribe, visit SUBSCRIBE or call us at (206) 784-4617.