Sometimes it’s easy to get so focused on celebrating the obviously big things - national events, life-changing experiences - that we might forget the value of the little moments.
We think it’s important to celebrate the little moments because in some seasons we may not have the opportunity to commemorate grand occasions with lots of preparation. (Although we very well could have impromptu parties to celebrate these moments!) As someone once said, “Sometimes life is full of awe, and sometimes it’s just awful.”1 Those are the times when we need to remember the whispers of a moment.
What kind of bright moments are we thinking of? When Baby claps and jumps as his aunties play their violins. The sight of a glorious sunset as you’re driving down the road. The instant when a little boy gives you a dandelion like it’s a dozen roses. A warm summer evening when you and your sister sit on rocks and enjoy ice cream cones filled with scoops of Blue Moon - her favorite flavor back when she was five.
We also think of celebrating the “small” spiritual victories because we know how hard fought those often are. Like when a group of little boys joyfully lets a long line of little girls go in the door first. Or when a four-year-old girl comes to you and says, “Is there any way I can be helpful?” or a ten-year-old girl asks for prayer that she will have a good relationship with her brothers and not tell them what to do too much. Or when you see the brightest, most popular little boy of a group befriending and helping a fellow who struggles. Maybe it’s watching an old lady keep up a cheery attitude and good sense of humor that makes everyone smile. Perhaps it’s the time you watch one of your young friends introduce herself to a WWII vet and thank him for his service to her country.
Celebrations of the moment also make me think of Longfellow’s poem “The Children’s Hour.”
Between the dusk and the daylight,
When the night is beginning to lower,
Comes a pause in the day’s occupations,
That is known as the Children’s Hour....
In his poem, Longfellow takes a brief, potentially routine time and commemorates it. He recognizes this hour of a father with his little daughters as something precious and by writing about it gives it weight. He captures the joy, love and merriment of something we might otherwise miss in our daily lives. This is celebrating the moment.
Thankfully, we don’t all have to write poems in honor of our “momentous occasions”. One way we can recognize these moments is to communicate how we were blessed. “Oh, thank you! I just love flowers!” - even if it’s “just” a dandelion - or “Sofia, thank you for offering to help me. That was a big encouragement today.” or “I saw how you were trying to be kind to so-and-so. That really cheered me up. Even more than that, it was a beautiful testimony for the Lord.” Besides commemorating that fleeting minute, these kind of statements can mean the world to the listeners.
May we choose to rejoice in the moments just as much as in the events. Remember them. Give thanks to the Lord for them. And maybe we’ll find out that these little moments are often the big ones after all.
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1 Finnian Jones in “The Basket of Flowers” Lamplighter Radio Theatre
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