Simple Things Move The Heart of Jesus

How often do we find ourselves jockeying for position, seeking to impress God, and win His favor? Worse yet, do we merely seek to do the big “spiritual things” not for His favor at all but for our own sense of self-worth? The moving sermon, the impressive ministry, the grandiose title that signals our importance to our peers and establishes our place in the humanly constructed pecking order that we all too often fail to remember God has turned upside down. “The last shall be first, you know?”

However, an honest look at the Gospels quickly and clearly reminds us that none of our self-conceived ideas of greatness impress a God who has measured the heavens with the span of His hand or placed the mountains in scales and weighed them. If God wants to be impressed, He certainly will not turn to the paltry attempts of humanity to meet that need.

Simple things move the heart of Jesus. A cup of cold water given to the parched catches the eye of the master. The donning of the servants towel or the selfless and sacrificial giving of our whole self-symbolized by the widow’s mite-causes our Savior to stand at attention. The desperate cry of the one who longs only to touch the hem of His garment or the simple trust of the one who knows that Christ need only to “speak the word and all will be well” is what moves the Sustainer of the universe into action. It is not great exploits, fancy titles, or impressive demonstrations but simple things, that move the heart of Jesus!