It is so distressing to read the papers and listen to the news. My heart breaks at the stories of starving people around the world…of storms that render entire communities homeless…of riots and fighting…of the plight of children in our world… of the names and faces of our own young men and women who have died in wars not of their own making…
So often the response to all of that is “But what can I do?,” “ I can’t make a difference, I am only one voice.”
It can become discouraging. We do question and flounder in the events of the day… but I would like to tell you a story:
“Tell me the weight of a snowflake,” said the little bird to the dove.
“Nothing more than nothing,” was the answer.
“In that case,” said the bird, “I must tell you a marvelous story.
“I sat on the edge of a fir tree, close to its trunk, when it began to snow—not heavily, as in a blizzard, but gently like in a dream without a wound, and without any violence. Since I had nothing better to do, I stayed, and counted all the snowflakes that landed on my branch. Their number was exactly 3,541,952.
“When the 3,541,953rd snowflake landed on my branch ‘nothing’ as you say, broke the branch off.”
And with that the little bird flew away.
The dove, since Noah’s time, an authority on the matter, thought about the story for a while and finally said to herself, “Perhaps, there is only one person’s voice lacking for change and peace to come to this world.”
It does give us something to think about.
Each month a member of the Cook County Ministerium will offer Spiritual Reflections. This week our contributor is Pastor EvaLyn Carlson of the First Congregational Church, United Church of Christ.
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