Growing vegetables, flowers, and trees have been part of my life as long as I can remember. Even though I tried everything I knew to keep my fig tree alive, I watched it dead. After years of experience with plants, I know when one is dead and it was dead. This probably doesn’t sound like a major tragedy, and in the scheme of life, it was a small thing. Yet, this tree had significance meaning to me. My dad rooted a clipping for me twenty-five years ago from a tree on our farm, which my grandfather planted over a hundred years ago. When Donna and I moved to our new home, I rooted a branch. The new owners of our previous house cut the tree down. The only potential of continuing my family heirloom was the small clipping I planted in an old cooking pot. In addition to the sentimental importance, this tree produced figs the size of pears. I’ve never seen another tree like it.
I finally accepted the fact my tree was dead. However, I felt prompted to pray. Sitting down next to it on the pot from which I transplanted it three months earlier, I said this brief half-hearted prayer. “Lord my fig tree is dead. It’s important to me and it has been in our family for over a hundred years. You are the giver of life. I ask that you will bring live back to it.”
I’d never had a dream like this one, but the same night I dreamed I should dig it up and plant it back in the cooking pot. This almost seemed ridiculous, but despite my doubt, the next morning I thought, “Ok, it won’t hurt. I can’t make it any worse.” I dug it up and replanted it in the cooking pot it had rooted and grown in for two years.
I checked a couple of times, but no change—still dead. Our daughter and her family came Easter and we walked around looking at our new trees and plants. As we approached my dead fig, I noticed something I could hardly believe. A tiny sprout had popped out on a small branch right at the dirt. I began praising the Lord and sharing the story with my family. Then I realized it was Easter—coincident? Was God teaching me something; reminding me He cares about the little things? I don’t know. I do know He answered my half-hearted prayer.
All through my Christian journey I’ve heard, “No prayer is too big for God.” I wish I also had learned sooner that “no prayer is too small for God.” The Lord cares as much about the small things in our lives as He does the big issues. Yet, like many believers, I went for years only asking God for help with the big important situations of life. The first miracle John records shows Jesus working His divine power over a small need. Applying it to a contemporary setting, Jesus provided punch for a wedding. People look so hard for hidden meanings in this miracle they miss the simple point of the story. He cares about the small issues in our life and provides what we need.
My wife labels me as the essence of ‘the absent minded professor’—keys, glasses, phone, and especially tools. Several years ago out of desperation after an hour of trying to find a lesson file, I asked the Holy Spirit to help me locate it. To my surprise, within a few seconds I saw it. After that, I began praying when I couldn’t find something. Time after time, I found my keys or the tool I was searching for within a few minutes. This brought a new understanding of God’s concern with the small details of my life. Most people tend to think some things are too insignificant to ask God for help. More and more I depend on Him for the smallest of things.
Jesus taught His disciples about the Father’s concerns over the small things in His creation. Matthew records Jesus’ words, Are not two sparrows sold for a cent? Luke says, Are not five sparrows sold for two cents? Yet not one of them is forgotten before God. Two sparrows sold for ½ cent. If you bought two pair for one cent, the seller threw in a fifth one at no charge. Sparrows were so plentiful and insignificant they were valued at ¼ of a cent each. Yet, God didn’t forget even the fifth sparrow with no human value. Jesus continued, Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. (Luke 12:7). Today the world population is around 7 billion people. Each individual has an average of 100,000 hairs on their head. Altogether, that’s seven with fourteen zeroes behind it. This means God cares so much about us He keeps count of our hairs. Jesus applies His teaching by telling them, Do not fear; you are more valuable than many sparrows (v7).
Naturally or supernaturally, God brought life back to my fig tree. Your situation may not be a dead plant but a lifeless relationship, a lifeless marriage, a dead spiritual life, or loss of something important to you. Maybe you have given up believing your situation is so huge even God can’t help or so small you don’t want to ask Him. God is our loving heavenly Father and He delights in helping us.
Sustaining Word for the Week: Let the Lord help you this week with all your problems, big or small. Be assured He wants to!