Bits & Pieces

I was walking along the beach with my daughter the other day. She was busily hunting for seashells along the shore. Something must have happened with the tide, so that there were large patches of the beach covered in rocks and broken shells. I think like most, she was searching for a large, whole shell, but she couldn’t find any worthy of keeping. We stopped at one of the shell patches, and I bent down and picked up a piece of shell that was white with bright purple lines. After I showed it to her, she began to search all of the patches for pieces of purple shell. She started finding lots of shells she wanted to keep. She said to me, “Mommy, it’s like once I started seeing the purple shells, I couldn’t stop finding them!” The keep worthy shells had been there all along, she had just been focusing on finding the wrong thing. By the time we got back to our beach towel, she had a whole handful of treasure.

So what if we’re moving through these difficult months, waiting for the big, shiny, perfect shell. Maybe we are missing out on God’s provision and blessings because we are overlooking the bits and pieces in search of the big reward.

That reminds me of Philippians 4:8, “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.”
In this letter to the persecuted church of Philippi, Paul reminds Christians that joy is based on their relationship with God, not our life circumstances.

So let us focus our eyes on the little things that are good, and right, and pure and admirable, even if they feel tiny and insignificant. Praising God for the accumulated bits and pieces of goodness brings us closer to Him. It is in our relationship with Him that we will find what we are looking for.