This morning’s word is Small Hands, Big Purpose.
The anchor verses are Jeremiah 29:11 and Psalm 138:8.
In a world that measures success by the size of our platforms and the speed of our results, a quiet revolution is happening in unexpected places. It does not make headlines. It does not trend. But it changes lives, one small act at a time.
Two young brothers in Minnesota decided to do something simple. Noah and Cole Dingels, of Eden Prairie, set up a lemonade stand. Not for a weekend, not for a summer, but for five years. When they started, Noah was seven and Cole was four. That first year they raised three hundred and fifty nine dollars, and they gave away every penny. Over five years, that little stand has raised more than sixty thousand dollars to support veterans. Sixty thousand dollars. From a lemonade stand. From small hands, holding paper cups, offering something sweet to pass on something even sweeter.
This is not a story about wealth or fame. It is a story about grit. About showing up, day after day, when no one is watching, when the work feels small, when the world says what you are doing does not matter. Noah and Cole did not let the world set the value of their effort. Every cup poured was a cup of love, and every dollar earned was gratitude to the ones who served.
We live in a culture that celebrates the overnight success, the viral moment, the instant transformation. But most of the things that last are built slowly, quietly, faithfully. The brothers with their lemonade stand understood this without being told. They did not set out to raise sixty thousand dollars in a day. They set out to serve, one cup at a time. And in that faithfulness, they found a purpose far bigger than themselves.
For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. That word was first spoken to people in exile, people who had been told they would wait seventy years before they went home. So it is not a promise of ease. It is a promise of purpose. It is the word of a GOD who sees the small things and is at work in them for something greater than we can see.
Jesus knew the power of small, faithful acts. When HE sent out HIS disciples, HE did not send them with fanfare or guarantees of success. HE sent them with a mission, to heal, to serve, to love. HE told them to go without a bag, without extra clothes, without the security of their own resources. HE sent them out like sheep among wolves, and yet HE promised they would not be alone. Their strength was not in their own ability. It was in their reliance on the One who had called them.
Noah and Cole were not so different. They did not have much. But they had a heart to serve, and they trusted that their small efforts would matter. And they did. Grit is not about the size of the task. It is about the size of the heart behind it.
There is an appointed time for everything. For the brothers, that time was not marked by a single grand gesture. It was marked by the steady rhythm of showing up. Every weekend, every hot day, every time they could have chosen to stay inside, they chose to serve. And in that consistency, they became a living testament to the truth that GOD uses small things to do great things.
The LORD will fulfill HIS purpose for me. Your steadfast love, O LORD, endures forever. This is the promise that holds us in the small moments. That our labor is not in vain. That our grit is not wasted. That the GOD who sees the sparrow fall also sees the lemonade stand, the kind word, the quiet act of love.
What started as a simple act of kindness became something larger. The brothers did not just raise money. They raised awareness. They inspired others. They showed that no one is too small to make a difference. We are all called to carry hope into our conversations, our workplaces, our homes, and to live so that the world around us is a little brighter because we passed through it.
So to the one who feels too small to make a difference, remember the brothers. Remember that GOD uses small things to do great things. The kingdom of GOD is built not by the powerful, but by the faithful. To the one weary of showing up, day after day, your labor is not in vain. The GOD who sees the sparrow fall also sees you. And HE is faithful to fulfill HIS purpose in you.
I am not here to prove myself. I am here to make HIM visible.
This Sunday’s Marc My Sabbath homily, The Sabbath of Small Things, carries this word further. Read it here.