By Pastor Brad Williams,
First Congregational Church Roscommon
Long ago, two boys were doing some woodworking, and they were given the task of building some feeding troughs for a local farmer.
There were few instructions other than they had to be able to hold enough food for several sheep or cows, and sturdy enough to be bumped into without falling over.
Excited to start their new job, both boys started out by picking out some wood.
The older boy got right to work eyeing up the wood and cutting it into equal looking sizes.
The younger boy took his time, finding straight wood that was sturdy with no knots. He measured each piece of wood with precision and took care with each board as he cut it to its specification.
The older boy said, “Why are you wasting your time finding the best wood? It’s only for hay and grass. It doesn’t matter to the animals how precise it is.”
The younger boy just smiled and said, “It matters to me.”
Next, the older boy laid out the first several pieces of wood for the container and started to nail it all together.
The younger one took each piece of wood, and one by one, sanded it down to a smooth surface on all sides and faces.
“What are you doing?” The older boy remarked, “It’s for a bunch of animals to eat their hay and feed. It doesn’t matter how smooth the wood is.”
Without pausing or picking up his head, the younger boy methodically sanded each board and politely said, “It matters to me.”
The older boy fastened his container together in record time and it looked pretty good when he was done.
Taking a lot of time, the younger one made sure his boards lined up flush with one another so there were no gaps for hay or fodder to fall through the slats in the bottom.
“You’ve got to be kidding me!” stammered the older boy. “This is not for a castle, it’s for a stable. The floor will already be covered in hay and dirt. It doesn’t matter if there are a couple tiny gaps.”
Focusing more intently than ever now, the younger boy attached two boards together to make a perfect seal and quietly said to himself, “It matters to me.”
Eager to finish the project, the older boy fastened legs to the bottom. To make sure it was sturdy, he loaded it up with a bunch of hay and grain.
When his container was assembled, the younger boy made sure that the legs were not only sturdy but also that they were equally balanced out. Then he climbed into it and moved around to make sure that even as the weight shifted from one side to the other, it stayed firm and did not move a bit.
“Quit wasting your time! It doesn’t matter if it moves a little bit,” shouted the older one.
Undeterred by the criticism, the younger boy ran his hand over every edge and surface of the trough, and once again said, “It matters to me.”
As the older boy finished his work with sweat on his brow, he set down his tools and said, “There you have it! One sturdy feeding trough. Fit for a cow.”
As the younger one finished his work and his careful inspection of it, he proudly smiled and thought to himself, “Now that’s a manger — fit for a king!”
Sometime later, on a cold dark night in a stable in Bethlehem, an anxious young man approached the two feeding troughs. Knowing his only choice was a manger to hold his newborn child, he inspected the two containers.
He looked over the first one and felt horrible that this was all he could offer his child for rest. But then, he saw it, the other manger, made with care and precision, smooth to the touch even in this harshest of environments.
He brought it over next to his tired wife. The young man wrapped the newborn child in swaddling clothes and laid him on the soft hay in the manger fit for a king.
Several years later, after this child had become a man, He had just finished breaking bread and talking with his closest friends. Slipping out into the garden to pray, He was full of sorrow knowing that he would soon be taken away to undergo incredible suffering and ultimately become a sacrifice for the world.
As he dropped down to his knees and cried out for strength to endure this painful trial, tempting thoughts began to attack his mind.
“You are wasting your time!” The tempting thoughts came, “These people you are suffering for – they don’t care about you. They are hopeless, they are insignificant, they don’t matter!”
Pushing His fists into the earth and rising to stand with unheralded resolve and focus, he looked off into the distance, steadying his gaze on the hills of calvary, and said with a determined voice, “They matter to me!”
