1/26/2026
Good Morning, My Dear Friends,
You often get the feeling from reading Scripture that Jesus could see things the disciples just couldn’t see. He could hear things no one else could hear. There could be a huge crowd around him, but Jesus would observe something no one else would catch.
They were once walking along this crowded road, with throngs of people pushing in on all sides, and all of a sudden, Jesus said, “Wait, somebody touched me.” They said, “Jesus, there are hundreds of people out here; we’re all getting bumped and pushed — what do you mean?” But Jesus said, “My robe. Someone touched my robe” (Mark 5:21-24). No one else caught it. Jesus did.
One day Jesus found himself surrounded by a bunch of children. They were crying and making a racket, and the disciples said, “Get the kids out of here, we can’t hear!” Jesus said, “Leave them alone. I can hear.” Jesus heard in the crying children the praise of God’s kingdom (Matthew 19:14).
I listened once to the president of a seminary, someone who had made major contributions to scholarly and ecclesiastical life. We were on a church retreat, and we went around to tell you why we were there. What factors impelled us toward a life of service in the church. When we got to him, he said that he was there, he thought, because of Miss Willa Brown. Who was Miss Willa Brown? A wise teacher? A distinguished professor?
“No,” he explained. “She was the little old lady who always sat alone near us on the pew on Sunday morning. During the service, when I settled in with my parents for that long, boring sermon, Miss Brown would secretly smile at me, quietly reach into her purse, and pull out a piece of the best tasting chocolate in the world. She always had it there, just for me, every Sunday.” He said, “That was the most tangible, visible, sacramental expression of unmerited, unreturnable love I have ever experienced. I am here today, in the church, because of Miss Willa Brown.”
The smallest becomes the greatest in the kind of kingdom that Jesus told us about. The last shall be first. The widow who touched the hem of Jesus’ garment, the children who gathered around Jesus, Miss Willa Brown — all the little people, those small, sometimes anonymous saints in whose faithful lives we have seen reflected the very nature of God.
Sometimes it’s not great and mighty, but the little people who show us the way.
God calls each of us by name,
Bruce Jones, Pastor
Imagine Church
