Thursday, March 24, 2022

The Rev. Gordon Allen

Love Small Things Most

Chatting with one of my fellow clergy recently, we were remarking on how precious some of the smallest and most fundamental things are and easily we take the for granted.

Indeed, it is not until they are endangered or we have lost them that we come to realize something of their true value. Matters of health, the simple powers of locomotion, our daily food, a drink of water, to name a few—they are treasures, and when we have them, we are rich, and we don’t, then those material things on which normally we place such store, cease to matter very much. It is noteworthy in that our Lord Jesus Christ, as He instructed His disciples to pray in the most famous of all prayers, begins by praising God, the Giver of all good, and only then when

He has offered His devotion, does He make a petition, but not for anything extravangant.

‘Daily Bread’ is what He asks for—no mention, note, of the peanut butter or jelly—these are bonuses, and we are lucky if we have them. It is good to remind ourselves from time to time of how important are the humble things in life—the ones we so often overlook and yet are the very foundation of our happiness and well-being. And as we do so, to offer our praise to God in turn, for this rich portion of His bounty to us. St. Thomas A. Kempis wrote in his “Imitation of Christ,” “Be thankful and this you will be worthy of the greater.” And I believe that sums it up.

The Rev. Gordon R. Allen. Father Allen was rector of St. John’s for twenty years between 1975-1995.