Betty’s mother Kathleen had been confined to a nursing home for several months. One day, while her family was visiting her, Kathleen suffered a stroke. Shortly thereafter, a woman from the facility appeared at the door of her room and announced “Mail Call!” bringing in a greeting card. It was from someone in the card ministry at the church.
“My nephew (her grandson) brought the card over,” Betty wrote in an email to the church’s card ministry leader.
“Kneeling by her bed, he read it to her. She was still conscious but unable to speak or see well. It was the most beautiful and caring card and had I Peter 5:7 in it, which talks about God’s care for her.
“The card came at the perfect time, and this was the last card and Scripture she received before losing consciousness. She passed away three days later.”
Betty asked the leader to relay a message to those involved in dependably writing out, addressing and sending those encouraging cards each month: “Please tell them how much those beautiful cards that came month after month meant to my mother.
“I know they made her so happy, even up to the very end,” Betty concluded. “And to receive that last one was a gift from God.”
Look at the effect that one simple card had on a family going through a stressful time – and how it arrived in God’s perfect timing! But someone had to send it.
Perhaps you do something regularly to serve others that feels painstaking, menial and even tiresome. Many tasks we do for community or Christian organizations take time and effort and we may wonder “Does anyone even notice this? Does even one person care or appreciate my efforts? I wonder if it has any impact at all.”
An expression of thanks for what we do is often absent. That’s when we need to decide if we will be staunch in completing the little things.
Paul in the New Testament wrote “Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.” I Corinthians 15:58 (NIV).
Elsewhere, Paul wrote “So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up.” Galatians 6:9 (NLT).
Helen Keller stated: “I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble.”
So don’t give up. Instead, press on with those responsibilities, even if they sometimes seem inconsequential. You may not always know the results of your efforts. No matter: God says “Your labor in the Lord is not in vain.”
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