"Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much..." Luke 16:10 NIV

"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights..." James 1:17

For the past few weeks I've noticed a few occurrences that have the potential of making positive changes in my life. Some may call them coincidences. As I sat thinking about things, I wrote in my journal, "Miracles aren't always accompanied with flashes of light and bolts of thunder. Sometimes they are small - for these things He will get praise."

I felt convicted, realizing that there are so many "little" things that God does every day that we never give Him His due credit for. We get so used to our routine and we attribute the small things to luck or coincidence. But if we believe God to be a true Father looking out for His loving children, then we've got to give Him His props when those little things happen. In Christendom, we hear about stewardship all the time. "Good stewardship" is about making the most of what you've been given. We have to be good stewards of the small blessings and not skimp on the gratitude. If we handle the little things well, He will feel free to bless us with more.

I heard a story years ago about a man who loved the Lord but died very frustrated. When He got to Heaven he asked about all the things that hadn't seemed to work out well in his life on earth. He wanted reasons for all the brick walls he faced. Why didn't God do this and Why didn't God do that? He was led to a filing cabinet from which he was shown pages upon pages of the catastrophes that God had protected Him from and pages reminding Him of forgotten occurrences in which God came through. Little things can make things bad, but they can also make things better. Those seemingly insignificant things can be exactly what spare us from big disasters.

Let's remember how Christ came. People expected the Messiah to make a grand, showy entrance. They thought the King of kings would make it obvious that He was who He said He was. However, Christ had a different plan, a better plan. He arrived humbly. We know the story...a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger, because there was no room for Him in the Inn. Not what we would call the beginnings of a majestic, magnificent life - but it was.

Don't expect every blessing in your life to arrive with pomp and circumstance. Sometimes, He does it big and sometimes He does it small. Don't limit God or put Him in a box. See every good thing as a gift and sing His praises at every opportunity.

Shari Grant is a Registered Nurse in South Florida, where she was raised in a (very!) Jamaican home. Some of the loves of her life are words (both reading and writing them) and missions work. She enjoys spending time with friends and family while living for a good laugh - one that makes her belly ache and her eyes water. Her bottom line goal in life is to make the Lord smile and maybe even serve Him up a chuckle from time to time, too.