An old man was walking along the beach, when he noticed a little girl ahead of him picking up starfish that had been cast ashore by the storm the night before. The old man hurried to catch up to her, and asked what she was doing. “Rescuing starfish,” the young lady replied. “They’ll die if I leave them here when the sun comes out.”
“But this beach goes on for miles,” argued the man, “ and there are millions of starfish stranded here. How can your effort make any difference?”
The girl look intently at the starfish in her hand then threw it back to the safety of the sea and said, “It makes a difference for this one!”
We would all like to make a difference. Usually we think that bigger is better but not necessarily. We are all called to make a difference no matter how small.
You are endowed with transformational powers. But using these transformative powers to take on the whole world may seem useless. But your divine love ripples throughout the world making a positive difference.
“I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples. “ – Mother Teresa
What do you see when you throw a pebble in the water – waves moving out to make rings, very small at first and then expanding outward and increasing until spreading across the water’s surface.
Just consider of how one piece of information can affect the stock market. Or one tweet can send thousands of people in a dizzy!
Knowing the power of one incident, just think how one act of kindness has the potential for dozens more.
We are socially interconnected people. Our thoughts, words and actions all have a potential ripple effect to become more and larger.
By “paying it forward” we can use God’s gifts to us to care for world. We can make a difference, a very real difference, one starfish at a time!
