The Little Things That Grab Hold

Summer at the Movies | Monday Reflection | Week 3

"As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him." — Psalm 103:13

Sunday you heard about George Banks learning the hard way that the small moments were the ones that mattered most. Not the big events. The Tuesday evenings. The ordinary Saturdays. The things that sneaked up on him and grabbed hold before he knew they were coming.

Most of us are living in the middle of moments we will one day realize were the ones that counted. The dinner conversation we were half present for. The question our child asked that we answered quickly because we were tired. The ordinary evening we could have turned into something but did not because nothing about it announced itself as significant.

Life does not always telegraph its important moments in advance. Sometimes you only recognize them looking backward. And by then the chance to be fully present in them has passed.

Here is what Sunday was really asking underneath the Father's Day message. What is the ordinary moment in front of you this week that deserves your full attention? Not the big event. The small one. The one that will not announce itself as mattering until years from now when you are standing somewhere wishing you had stayed a little longer.

You are in the middle of a Tuesday evening that someone will remember. Be there for it. Put the phone down. Ask the follow-up question. Stay at the table five minutes longer than you planned.
The little things are the things. They always were.