No job too small

MANY service businesses will handle only large-scale jobs. That's why I've always been grateful to see advertisements that say ``No job too small.'' We all have needs to be met, and they're not always big enough to warrant the attention of a major organization. Recently it occurred to me that since God is the creator, sustainer, and supplier of all life and being, the same slogan could apply to His care for us, His children. In studying the Bible I've learned that no evil, large or small, is able to escape destruction when it is confronted by God's law. Many people seem to feel that the ``little'' problems--annoyances, loss of small items, and so forth--don't warrant turning to God for help. Yet such troubles can be corrected by doing just that, and there's always spiritual growth to be gained. Here's an example: Once when our daughter was about five, she and I were returning home in the car from doing some errands. She suddenly began to cry with pain, and showed me a splinter that was lodged under her thumbnail. There seemed no explanation for its presence. We were in the habit of turning to God for help in everything, so we immediately began to pray for His guidance. We knew Him to be a loving Parent, always comforting and inspiring, so we listened carefully. The healing answer we needed came in these words from the Christian Science textbook by Mary Baker Eddy: 1 ``A spiritual idea has not a single element of error, and this truth removes properly whatever is offensive.'' 2 Now, according to the teachings of Christian Science, man is the spiritual idea, the image or expression, of God. And as the likeness of perfect God, man cannot include anything foreign to His pure nature. The splinter was clearly a foreign object, and it certainly didn't belong where it was. In the time that it took to realize the spiritual facts of the child as God's offspring, and her consequent invulnerability to evil, the crying stopped. Nothing else was ever said, and later that day she happily showed me her thumb, devoid of the splinter. No human means had been employed to remove it. Indeed, the truth had removed properly the offensive sense of pain, and with it the apparent source--th e splinter. It wasn't neglect, but trust in God's love for us and His all-powerful ability to heal, that prompted us to keep from poking and prying at the thumb. We'd had so many proofs of this comforting love that we knew it was available to help in that trying moment. Nothing is too small to take to God. Since, as the Bible says, ``all things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made,'' 3 every element of real being is under His loving law. And since ``God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good,'' 4 agreement with this simple but profound premise can correct even minute problems. There is practical wisdom in correcting the small troubles so that they cannot develop into larger ones. When we learn to trust God to reveal His truth, His harmony and joy, as the real state of our being in every moment and circumstance, evil has more difficulty gaining a foothold in our experience. When we refuse to be impressed with fear, or with the sense that something can be out of the range of God's control, we can stop evil in its tracks. In a sermon delivered over one hundred years ago, Mrs. Eddy said, ``Let us open our affections to the Principle that moves all in harmony,--from the falling of a sparrow to the rolling of a world.'' 5 She used the term Principle as a synonym for God, one that is implied in the Bible. And her teachings, as a faithful follower of Christ Jesus, assert that this Principle is infinite. No right idea is too small to be lovingly cared for and nourished by this loving Principle. When we're tempted to think our troubles aren't important enough for us to expect divine help, we might think again. With childlike trust we can put our care in His hands, listen for His direction, and accept the healing as natural and permanent. 1 The Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science. 2 Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 463. 3 John 1:3. 4 Genesis 1:31. 5 Miscellaneous Writings, p. 174.