It was early morning. On the beach was
an elderly man. He walked with a cane, carefully surveying the beach that the
receding tide had left exposed. Every now and then he bent to pick something up
and toss it into the ocean. I watched with fascination as he carefully scanned
the beach before him. It was then that I realized he was looking for starfish.
Every time he saw one lying helpless in the sand, unable to get back to the
ocean on his own, he would lovingly pick it up and toss it gently back into the
sea. Curious as to why he was doing this, I approached him. He told me,
"The starfish are left behind after the tide goes out. If they don't get
back into the ocean they will dry up and die beneath the hot summer sun."
"But there are endless miles of
beach and there must be millions of starfish," I said. "Surely you
don't think you can save them all. What difference can your efforts possibly
make?" Slowly the old man bent over and picked up another starfish. As he
tossed it into ocean he looked at me and said, "It makes a difference to
that one."
I was deeply touched by this story. How
easy it is to become so discouraged by the sheer magnitude of the task that
Christ has set before us that we fail to focus on the value to Him of each one.
We are called to be faithful in scanning those "beaches" and in
making a difference to "that one" and "that one" and "that
one" in the name of Christ.
Anonymous
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