We got it in our heads that simple or unnoticed work is a waste of time. In the words of Mike Rowe, “we’ve declared war on work.”
We’ve created a caste system where everyone from plumbers to garbage men are on the bottom and Hollywood stars are at the top. Maybe that’s why so many new parents get depressed. I’m just cleaning poop and cooking dinners now. Simple work. Does this even matter? Maybe I don’t matter either.
Have you ever stopped to think that Jesus spent most of his life doing manual labor? The God of the universe spent most of his life as a small-town carpenter. We can get by without the rich and famous, but without people to remove our trash, grow our food, and change diapers, the gears of human history would come to a grinding halt. I think maybe our vision of what matters is skewed. Your work matters. And God sees you in every diaper change, in every carrot picked, in every trash bag taken out.
God sees you in all the quiet, unnoticed spaces and tells you that you matter too.
