What value do you put on seemingly useless things and, more importantly, weak and useless people? - Daily Reflections October 17,2014

OF GOD AND GRANDMOTHERS

 

I wonder how many of us now really value the five-centavo or even the 10-centavo coins. For one, they are so small. Second, they are practically worthless, for there is absolutely nothing now that you can buy with them.

       I remember a time when the segment of Taft Avenue in Manila fronting the Philippine General Hospital was lined with huge acacia trees. To a child’s mind then, the avenue was such a wide thoroughfare, so spacious, airy and shady. It had another memorable trait.  Sparrows filled the air, the shady trees, and the ground where we waited for our bus ride to Mendez, Cavite.

       They were so commonplace, so visible, yet unnoticed. And they were so many. We didn’t mind them at all. How do you value something so available, so numerous, and so worthless in your eyes? What does one do to so many moths during the onset of the rainy season, apart from letting them die when the sun comes back in the morning?

       What a good teacher the Lord is! He found use for something so useless and worthless. He found meaning in a reality that does not merit a second look. He found it useful to make the lowly sparrow a stepping stone towards increasing our self-worth and self-image vis-à-vis the loving God.

       I guess love is really that, essentially. It is all about loving even seemingly useless things. My grandmother loved us truly. She kept away and stored everything she found lying around: a hair clip, a paper clip, a piece of string, a used paper bag. She kept and stored everything “useful” for some rainy day, not for herself, but for us. Guess who came to our rescue when we were looking frantically for a clip, or a piece of cloth, or the like!

       God and grandmothers! They sure are alike in at least one thing. They both value even the valueless — for love. Even though we may feel like worthless little paper clips, or useless five-centavo coins, Someone up there loves us and cares for us. God values me and you and, mind you, we are worth more than many paper clips. Fr. Chito Dimaranan, SDB

 

REFLECTION QUESTION: What value do you put on seemingly useless things and, more importantly, weak and useless people?

 

Lord, thank You for still loving me and making me feel worthy despite my unworthiness because of my transgressions.