CHRISTIAN COMMENT: Small steps can make a difference
THERE'S been great excitement in our house over the recent weeks!
It's been prompted by the arrival of two composters and our new wheelie bins!
You are probably thinking "how sad" at this moment, and it certainly is true that we have come to that stage in our lives when shopping in garden centres is more appealing than wandering around clothes shops!
But back to the composters and the wheelie bins – at last we feel we are doing our little bit towards the problem of global warming, however small!
You see, it is very easy as we listen to the news, to feel that it is all too big and there really is nothing we can do to help.
So, the last couple of weeks with the news of the deaths of innocent strangers in Mumbai, the spread of cholera among ordinary people in Zimbabwe, the tragedy of Baby P, the sad story of Sharon Matthews, and the continuing global credit crunch – it all serves to remind us of the fragility of life and it can make us feel hopeless.
As I reflect on this I am reminded of a great story I heard this summer.
It's the story of a small boy walking along a beach.
He discovers that freak weather conditions have caused hundreds of starfish to be washed up along the beach as far as the eye could see.
All of them are gasping and struggling for life.
The boy bends down and picks up the starfish nearest to his feet and throws it back into the sea.
An older man walking along the beach watches him as he continues one by one to return starfish to the water and says to him "you might as well give up, have you seen how many there are, you will never be able to throw them all back.
What makes you think you can make a difference?"
The small boy bends down and picks up another starfish and throws it into the sea and says "well I made a difference for that one!"
As we remember again the Christmas story of God choosing to come into our world as that smallest and most vulnerable of human beings - a baby – let's not allow the tragedy of our world to stop us doing the little thing that is at our feet that will make the difference to someone else's life.
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Weather for Worthing
Tuesday 14 February 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 4 C to 8 C
Wind Speed: 16 mph
Wind direction: North
Tomorrow
Sunny spells
Temperature: 3 C to 10 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
Wind direction: North west
