I’ve been practicing this verse for the last month and a half. Back surgery will do that to you. It’s hard to feel cocky and powerful when you can’t lift more than a jug of milk. Want to feel completely helpless? Look down to see your two-year-old, thirty-pound granddaughter raise her arms for you to lift into your embrace. 

The hospital staff had me up and walking with my very own walker four hours after surgery. This continued every few hours until I left the hospital the next day. Then I started walking around our neighborhood. I made it six houses the first day before I was exhausted. More recently, I made it four miles. Even so, I did not set any speed records. 

I’ve spent a great deal of time in silence over the last six weeks. As a borderline introvert, I kind of enjoyed most of it. Ollie and Millie and I soaked it up together.

I had to take Ollie to the emergency veterinarian on Saturday night. Thankfully, he came home with me. The pain medicine they gave him perked him up a bit yesterday. He played so gently and patiently with our granddaughter. She would throw the ball to him or hand it to him. He would carefully take it from her hand and drop it down the steps to her so they could do it all over again. 

As always, he ran upstairs ahead of me this morning. After greeting me and getting me into my seat for time alone with God, he descended the stairs back to his comfortable mat. This has never happened before. 

Want to feel even more helpless? Watch your aging dog who has exuded endless border collie energy for a decade hunch over in pain and lie down in a place where he will not be a bother. 

Baby girls and faithful friends remind us of what matters most in life. How could we not love God more for blessing us with warm embraces and faithful shepherding? 

Today, on the first day back in the office, I actually begin with a trip to the dentist. This was delayed due to my busy schedule of not going anywhere for a month and a half. I have a world-changing meeting today. There are several projects and a dozen tasks or more before me. And yet, my heart will be at home with my faithful and aging friend. 

With all there is in this world to puff up our egos, some things drive us to our knees. Baby girl hugs do that. Faithful friends who always lead the way do that. Love and loss do that. 

In the smallness of it all, we find the bigness of it all. Such deep love and enduring affection find their source in the one who loved the world so much he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16). 

Old dogs and children, thank you Tom T. Hall, are extensions of our Father’s love. They focus our attention on our smallness in the vast equation of all eternity. They teach us how much God loves every little thing, including us. We are at our best when we live for God’s bigness and our smallness. We never stand taller than when we kneel in prayer, when we embrace little ones, and when we comfort old friends. 

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I will decrease so that people can see how big, how good, and how loving God is.

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Our Father, thank you for teaching me the high value of smallness. Forgive me for taking so long to understand. Amen.