Does God Care About the Little Things?

“Alexa, turn on Christmas!” I commanded, without a please or thank you.

The beautiful white lights on my Christmas tree and mantle lit up the darkness, resembling a magical fairy kingdom. Arriving home after sundown was worth the thrill of saying the special words and watching the results.

That was last year. 

As I attempted to replicate this experience ten months later, the setup repeatedly failed, eating up hours of my day. My frustration grew more rapidly with the memories of previous successes and the ease of setup. And, no, recognizing this as the “first-world problem” it was, did not ease my irritation. The SMART outlets were not living up to their name as they forgot how to connect to the Wi-Fi. 

I was willing to admit it might be a user error. What was I doing wrong? Since our undecorating last Christmas (a sad day of tree-mourning for me), two things had changed: our internet provider and my cellphone. The problem had to be linked to one or the other. Or I’d have to accept that I’d lost brain cells since last year. 

I grumbled to anyone who would listen (my husband being the only other person in the condo) as I paused and resumed the project several times throughout the day. After all, life goes on, with or without twinkly Christmas lights.

The Wi-Fi in our condo was accessible and operational. The power to control the lights and make them bow to my commands was within my reach. I just had to connect the giver and the receiver.

Similarly, as believers, when we fail to connect with God (our power source), our lights refuse to work, too. The people around us do not see Jesus reflected in our words and actions. They might notice a grumbling, frustrated individual instead. 

“Knowing Jesus doesn’t make her any different than me,” they might think.

While being a daughter of God doesn’t guarantee me a trouble-free life, it should influence how I respond to frustrations. I don’t have to deal with every challenge on my own. Yet, I often need reminders of this fact.

Before I went to bed, admitting technological defeat, the memory of our pastor’s encouraging words in church that morning flashed through my mind.

“Pray about EVERYTHING,” he said. “Every little thing. Don’t think that God doesn’t want to be bothered with the small things. He loves you, so He cares about all of your requests.”

In all of my troubleshooting, I did not consider prayer to be an approach to solving my problem. 

“Forgive me for my impatience and grumbling today, Father. Please help me figure this out,” I prayed, connecting to my Power Source.

Within minutes, the lights were functioning on my demand. 

Now, you can believe what you will about miracles and God taking the time to help me with such a relatively insignificant thing when the world is in turmoil, but all I know is, I spent all day trying to figure something out on my own, and when I asked God for His help, I finally solved the problem.  The verse our pastor quoted was Philippians 4:6:

When you have a problem, it always feels better to vent to someone, even if it’s just to blow off steam. Why not vent to God instead? Pray about everything. Maybe, we won’t need to grumble and complain to anyone else. Our spiritual lights will continue to glow because God eases our malcontent.

Do you pray about everything? Do you believe God loves you enough to patiently listen to your problems? To care about the little things?

Look at the birds. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren’t you far more valuable to him than they are?

Matthew 6:26

God takes the time to feed the birds. He’s got your back. Talk to Him.

Father, help me to make prayer such a regular habit that I make it my first go-to in times of struggle. I believe that You loved me enough to sacrifice Your son for me. So, I also accept that You care about the things that upset me. Guide me today in my words and actions. I love You and want to share every part of my life with You.

Amen.

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