Celebrating the small things.

Life is full of major milestones. Births, graduations, weddings…These are times of great celebration, times of gathering together with those who love us most and marking the event with lots of laughter and love.

And then there are those other milestones. The ones that don’t necessarily get earmarked as “special” until much later, when our minds revisit them and we smile in memory. They may be words spoken, moments shared, or just a meeting of the mind.

We had a few of those milestones this past week. Four of the “littles” in our life came to spend a week and we heaped up a great big pile of those “other” milestones. The sights and sounds of four cousins sharing laughs and projects made us look at one another and smile, knowing we were earmarking yet another moment that we’d revisit later.

This morning, as I think back over the past seven days, and all the many small moments that added up to create one gigantic good time for all, I can’t help but think how God must smile a gentle smile each and every time we do or say or behave in a way that touches His heart.

The times we delight in the nature around us, the moments we step outside of ourselves and do for others, and—maybe most importantly of all—the days we stop everything else and look only to Him…these are milestones in the eyes of God.

It’s all too easy to become so caught up in the fast-paced way of life. We tend to want it all, and we usually want it now. Yet the best things in life have always been at our disposal, if only we have the eyes with which to view them. Loving relationships with those entrusted to our care, time spent engaged in the important things and not just the urgent things, and the ability to see past ourselves and our own needs in order to fulfill His word.

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” ~Mark 12:30-31

I watched the four cousins this past week and observed that the times they laughed the hardest and smiled the biggest were those moments when they were doing for one another. Making a get-well sign for Kendall, practicing with their teammate for the kareoke competition, cheering for Carter at his championship baseball game, reaching out to take a nearby hand as they ran along the banks of the lake at sunset.

These four created milestones. I feel certain they are moments of time that will forever be earmarked as treasured memories. What they may never know is how watching them create those moments also earmarked our own thoughts, feelings, and emotions. They served as a reminder to slow down and savor the small things.

Life is full of the major celebrations that mark passages of our life.

But it’s the small celebrations of life that mark our growth in Him.