Raking leaves is a menial autumn task. Yet, the reward is profoundly noticeable. With each pass of the rake an area of grass becomes exposed, pristinely green.
At first the task seems unattached to what is important. Upon further thought, no chore is without a divine purpose. It would be a moral stretch to assign some significant value, perhaps a pithy metaphor, to make a case for God. However, if one catches the mind wandering while the rake scratches the ground, the thought betrays the heart. There is no menial task in God’s economy. Every assignment, no matter how small, either connects the doer with God or is rationalized away in simplicity. God does care how we rake leaves. If His eye is on the sparrow, not one falls to the ground apart from His will.
Jesus models this idea for us. While on the road in Samaria, he told stories about the regular ways of life. The tales were not meant as Sunday school lessons. “Nothing is more dismissive of Jesus that to treat him as a Sunday school teacher who shows up on Sundays to teach us about God and how to stay out of trouble. If that is the role we assign to Jesus, we will badly misunderstand who he is and what he is about.”1 No, Jesus shows us that eternal life begins today on the walk to Jerusalem. The journey is now. All that we do is captive to Christ or to Satan. So raking leaves is an experience of worship to one or the other.
1Peterson, Eugene. Tell It Slant, Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co, 2008.
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