big things in small packages

A dear friend of mine made pooh cake the other day.  That's right.  Pooh cake.  She was going to be teaching a seminar to young adults on how ones outward appearances can be inviting and beautiful but how even a little bit of something ungodly can corrode and taint who we are on the inside.  And, no matter how beautiful things are on the outside, once made aware of the inside, the entire package loses its draw.  Little things making huge differences.

The pooh cake got me thinking about small things making big differences.  It got me thinking about a little baby born so very long ago.  One small period of time that made all the difference for all the world.  The hope of the world showed up in a dirty little animal cave as a helpless baby.  Who would have thought! A small little itty bitty showed up to save us all.  Surely no one saw that one coming!

Well, we had a little "no one saw that one coming" moment this week. A small thing that started making a huge difference.  We have made many contacts in this past year.  Many relationships that are growing with every opportunity of contact.  We've talked with mayors, priests, business owners, and so many others.  Any one of them could have been the first.  But that's not how it happened.

This week we had our very first baptisms in the province.  It was not majestic nor extravagant by any worldly standard.  It was quite humble.  Their names are Rosa and Zoila.  Rosa is 89 years old and Zoila is her daughter.  They are quite poor and live in a tiny village  30 minutes up a dirt road through the mountains.  They are not key figures in their community.  They are not well known.  But, they are lives changed by God's redeeming grace and they are ready to make a difference.  They are the first stake in the ground.  Gods first claim for Loja Province.

There is no body of water where they live.  No lake, river, or swimming pool.  It was too far from the ocean and it seemed that a immersion baptism was out of the question.  And so, it ended up that we did a baptism with a small tub of water and a bowl.  A small gathering of believers from the church in Catamayo (where we live) came along for the celebration.  A few family members also attended.  It was so humble and simple.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5m5KyXh_fGk

 

And that's how it's going to start.  The light has pierced the darkness.  Hope has shone through the hopelessness in a very unexpected way.  After we had the baptisms we decided for several of us to stay on and go visiting people in town.  And do you know what happened?!  Zoila went with us.  She brought us to people in need.  She was able to break barriers.  The woman she brought us to had been cold and closed to us before.  But when Zoila stood with us it gave our words validity.  It broke down the wall.  And so we share God's love with her and she shared her heart with us.  Her loneliness, worries, and fears were all laid out.  And she finally heard about how love came down to this earth in the form of a perfect man who died for a very imperfect people.  She saw light.  I hope when we return there next that she will embrace that hope.

Sometime things surprise us. Small things can make big differences.  All the difference.  Its why even when things seem small we celebrate what God has done.  We recognize the potential.  We see all the possibility that lies ahead.   It keeps the pooh out of our cake.