A few months ago I found myself tired and discouraged after a long day. There was nothing major I could find in my heart at first pass but as I sat in the quiet, feelings and thoughts emerged that seemed to center on this question, “Does anyone really see ___?” Truth be told, I cannot remember what it was that felt so unseen that day, but I remember the ache and the wondering.
We all have those moments of questioning whether or not the work we are doing is making much of a difference to God and others. We also wonder if anyone can quite capture the experience of what it means to be us in the midst of that work. That’s not just true of vocational work. It’s true of the work of relationships, stewarding your emotional and spiritual life, growing in your walk with the Lord, and the work of just plain living.
I’m grateful that in that moment my attention was grabbed by a verse in 1 Kings 7:22 that the Scripture journal I was using that day guided my heart to. In this passage, it describes the physical layout of the temple and details a part of the top of the columns that are ornately and stunningly created. Beautiful craftsmanship in the temple? Of course. What’s interesting is that no one, that is but God, would have seen this part of the temple as it describes the tops of the pillars.
In that moment I needed to receive what I hope to offer to you, don’t despise the lily work when your Heavenly Father treasures it so. We all have lily work, the hidden and obscure places that only God sees. Not just the work itself but what it means to be us in the midst of that work. Whether it’s pleading prayer as you seek to release anger that you might be gentler with your children, the hard fought practice of yielding to accountability from others to defeat sin, summoning the courage to share the gospel again when it went poorly before, or it’s the mundane work of serving others in whatever God has called you into this season. It can be big, it can be small, it can feel like only you can see the cost, but God, he delights in it and he delights in you.
Whatever your lily work may be in this season, I pray you do it unto the Lord with the same fervor and trust that those builders did. God’s eye is always upon us, he is so deeply glorified as we seek to honor him in every way, big or small.
In Christ,
Antonea Bastian
