Little Things

There is a sporting clich?, something about a “sticky wicket”, which captures more of life than the first person uttering the words intended.  In reality the terms does capture of sporting conundrum.  By all logic the batter in the game of cricket should have been out!  The ball hit the stumps, the wickets trembled, the bails tumble but did not fall off.  Net, net, there is no out.  Americans might cry fowl but the rules are quite clear.  There are two actions required in this process and only one occurred.
 
Most, everything I can imagine, in life requires two actions.  Relationships are not what they are unless both are involved.  Gifts don’t really become gifts unless there is someone to receive them.  Sports, communities, and even work require at least two parties in order to function.  It is the little “thing” that turns the bigger concept which cascades to eventually reach the whole circle.  Life doesn’t function, at least not for long, in isolation.  We are never islands.
 
I find myself walking down life’s path comfortable with the concepts of cause and effect, beginnings and ends, and being in the present, almost unconscious of the fact that I am doing this as part of a community.  There is always more than one!  Cherry and the girls are touched by my choices in ways I do not anticipate or fully understand.  The people I work with participate in more aspects of my life than I will ever appreciate.  Friends are integral to how life unfolds.  Life turns and changes in the crux of the dynamic between at least two, often more individuals. 
 
In this context, “this is the plan, planned for the whole earth, and this is the hand that will do it, reaching into every nation.  God-of-the-Angel-Armies has planned it.  Who could ever cancel such plans?  His is the hand that's reached out.  Who could brush it aside?” (Isaiah 14.26, 27)  The “who” are you, me, and anyone who would choose to be an obstacle.  We are God’s required cog.  It’s a little big thing.