One tiny stone is all you need

I look up to the mountains; does my strength come from mountains? No, my strength comes from God, who made heaven, and earth, and mountains. (Psalm 121:1-2)

Look at the mountains and catch a little glimpse of just how majestic God's care must be - boulders balancing precariously on each other, one right after the other - standing there for years on end without any perceptible movement at all. The Arizona desert has many areas like this and each pass I make through those areas on various day trips makes me just pause a bit to consider the wonder of God. One tiny stone holds all the weight of those huge boulders - making it impossible for them to topple. The 'strength' of the mountain is really not in the massive stones, but in the tiny ones that are lodge into the wedges that hold those bigger ones in place! We see the massive and think the strength must be there, but in God's way of doing things, it is oftentimes the littlest things that bring the greatest strength into our lives.

I think God gives us little lessons in what some may consider to be the oddest of times or the most unusual of ways. I stand at my kitchen window and just watch as a butterfly casually goes from leaf to leaf, flower to flower. Resting away from the winds, ready to take the next leg of the journey, but somehow knowing when to wait and when to move. I wonder how many of us need to take hold of that lesson - knowing when to wait and when to move so our journey is not only safe, but is marked with the care that God provides when we await his timing? I hear the chatter of birds all around, then listen as the day grows still and all things seem to be without movement. Perhaps God is teaching us there is a time to be 'engaged' and other times when it is just good to kick back and take in the world around us.

Our strength isn't always physical. Some of us have a great need for some emotional strength right now because life has been stirring and stirring until we are left feeling a bit undone by all we have faced. Others need some spiritual strength because your faith has been wavering - not really sure what you should hold onto right now. Regardless of the type of strength we need, God wants us to know the greatest strength may not come in the boulders, but in the tiny stones he wedges into the right spaces to keep the boulders of our life from crashing in around us. Never look at the tiniest of lessons as 'not worthy' of your attention and care - they can become the biggest ones to bring the greatest strength in just the right places in your life! Just sayin!