A Tale of Pigtails & Obedience

I think I'm starting to feel at home in our new house. For the most part things are put where they go, boxes have been broke down and stacked up.Family pictures line the hallway and I can walk through the house in the dark without slamming my shins into stuff. I tend to wake up earlier than normal lately.... early yesterday morning before church when I was sitting in the dark hours of the morning talking with the Lord. I sat pondering in amazement at His intricate detailing and how He's masterfully knitted our lives together with occurences, events, people, heart-to-heart talks, snot cries- relocations, relationships and even heartbreak. All of theses events in our lives have been part of a very large plan not just for our lives, but the lives of others...and ultimately for the Kingdom of God! ( we tend to get really near sighted sometimes in our spiritual walk and start thinking thinking in terms of HERE & NOW...but the Kingdom of God is eternal- God is working on a much larger scale than our "home" or "community" or "country"...his measuring rod and plans aren't for here and now necessarily- but how will it effect time and eternity?)

Thinking in these terms-(kind of mind boggeling if you really let your mind go in that direction....) I started reflecting on events and circumstances in my life...and it struck me how truely mysterious God's Ways are! How a seemingly "here and now" insignificant gesture can change lives forever....and how that small gesture has a boomerang effect on the lives around it...and soon the "butterfly effect" is in full swing and lives are changed around the world over a small, seemingly insignificant kindness.



Sitting in my living room yesterday morning with my Bible in my lap- I was remembering when I was about four years old....Jakey's age. I obviously don't remember all the details of the circumstances- but this old lady knitted me two yellow and creme colored ponytail ties. I loved them- and she told me that they were to wear to church. We didn't go to church. (looking back I'm sure she realized that!) She was a nice old lady (I was pretty shy as a little girl) and I remember really liking her. I don't know how my Dad knew her and I don't know what the relationship was between my parents and this older lady- but next thing I remember is this old ladystarted picking me up in a big old van to go to Sunday School. Faithfully.

I don't know if she lived next door or three towns away- but the old lady picked me up (and sometimes my sister too...(if I remember right) and we went to an old Assembly of God church to sing upstairs with the "big people" ( I specifically remember asking to sit on the front row close to the piano player so that I could watch her hands move across the long keys) and then go down steep white stairs into the basement for Sunday School. I remember learning the song "Peter, James and John Went Fishing" and I remember really liking the flannel story board images.

Every week I would bring home papers from Sunday School and my mom would read the simple stories of Jesus, his disciples and the simplicity of salvation. It wasn't long before the old lady wasn't picking me up....my parents were driving me to church....as a family. Of course, there are many other details and chapters to this story....but the point that I want to make is this......

She used her talent of making things as unto the Lord- as a tool to reach out to a little girl and a young family. She was faithful in the SMALL THINGS. Ponytail holders don't rank up there too high in the greater scheme of things.....but the moral of the story is that she was obedient. She reached out and was faithful in the small things- she picked up a visitor for Sunday School-she brought her home with stories and coloring pages. She was kind. She was willing.She was faithful.

So I sat there yesterday morning pondering the ladies faithfulness (I don't even remember her name!) 30 years ago to the Lord...and I can't help but picture her picking out some leftover yarn from her basket- begin knitting those ponytail holders for a little girl that she hardly knew...and I refelected (with teary eyes) the effects of her kindness all these years later...To imagine that my Dad is a minister in NC- he's been around the world preaching the gospel, he's been in the "spiritual trenches" in battle for the sake of the Lord, he's been used of God to perform miracles, to build churches, to build back lives that the devil has tried to destroy...all of this..... the result of that ladies obedience.

What about the differences my mother has made? What about the children that have been in my mothers Sunday School classes? Consider all the women that my mother has counselled over the years...the children she's had sitting at her desk in our private school? The people in foreign countries that have received tracts, food, clothing and medication because of my mothers devotion to the ministry? All because of ponytail ribbons?

Sitting on that front row watching the piano player put a desire in a little girls heart to learn the piano...all these years later, I am our churches pianist. Do you see the effects you can have just by simply being in church and doing YOUR PART?

That ladies willingness to plant a tiny seed produced an orchard of fruit bearing trees for the Kingdom of God!

Don't despise the small things. Don't ever get weary in well doing.

Be Faithful. Be Obedient. Make a difference.

Shine All Your Light,
Cass