Zooming in

I love these satellite images that allow you to zoom in from the sky to a hair on a flea.

You start from where Archimedes wanted to put his stick to move the Earth; then narrow your search to a continent; then to a country; next you see the mountains and rivers take shape. Then lower and lower you descend like Mary Poppins --- into your town, then your neighborhood, and then granny on your back porch.

Sometimes I have looked from too high an altitude at the opportunities for courage. One tends to think of heroism on an epic scale --- the Gandhis or Martin Luther Kings, or the soldier who throws himself on a grenade for his squad.

The reality is that all day long we get chances to turn frictions and temptations into acts of infinite value. Nothing is too trivial to be transformed into heaven's gold --- an insult you overlook, a sin you forgive, a right you sacrifice, a fear you bring to the Lord.

The trick is to not make a big deal of these deeds when we do them (Matthew 6). We have all seen people make solemn productions of asking forgiveness for the smallest trespasses; that's just tiresome. God rewards the right hand that is not aware of the left hand's kindness.

So let us die these little deaths. For "precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints" (Psalm 116:15). And not just the deaths of the soldiers on grenades --- whom I suspect did their real dying first in many private moments.