I have a folder of colorful brochures, articles from national magazines, and short booklets that I helped to produce. This little portfolio contains visible evidence of the work I did before I became a stay-at-home mom.
The record in my “portfolio” for an October shortly after quitting work looked like this: I went grocery shopping five times. I now have no groceries left from those trips. I cleaned the house five times, but two days after each cleaning, the house looked about the same as it did before I cleaned. I washed about 40 loads of laundry, but the dirty laundry basket filled almost before I could fold and put away the clean clothes. I prepared over 90 meals, of which nothing remains. What of October could I put in my portfolio?
As I looked at October in that way, I wondered, “Does what I do really matter? The house is reasonably clean—livable at least, we have clean clothes to wear, we aren’t hungry, but have I really made a difference?”
I wonder if my grandma ever thought that way. After her marriage, the only time she worked outside the home was a period of a few months when my grandpa first entered the Navy during World War II. Although she was regularly involved in her church, she never taught a Sunday School class or led a ladies’ group. Instead, she chose to work as an assistant in a girls’ club at the church and to help in the church kitchen. She preferred to work quietly and unnoticed in the background. Being noticed by others was not her motivation; serving God and others guided her actions. Did her life matter? For the answer to that question, you could ask any of the hundreds of people who wrote to her during her final illness or came to her funeral.
“Everyone thought we were crazy to go to Bible college at our age,” one couple wrote. “Even our family tried to discourage us from going. But you encouraged us to go, and you prayed for us.”
“Growing up without a mother was hard,” another lady said. “Although I didn’t like it at the time when you gave me some admonition or bit of advice, I see now how much you helped me through those years.”
“I knew all of her family well from the stories she told me,” commented her hairdresser. “But as proud as she was of her family, she always asked first about my family. And she always shared something from the Bible with me.”
One lady, unknown to everyone else in our family, told us, “She came to my house when I was newly married. I did not know her; I do not know why she came. I had my suitcase packed and was planning to leave my husband. But she talked with me and shared some Bible verses. Everything changed then. I’ve had so many happy years of marriage. We would have never celebrated our fortieth anniversary if it had not been for her. “
A mother wrote, “I still remember how you brought over a pan of fresh cinnamon rolls when our boy died.”
Hundreds of missionary, evangelist, and pastor families slept under her roof, ate at her table, and felt at home in her home.
At her funeral, my dad said, “Grandma loved sacrificially. We’ve been the recipients of the gifts of her hands and her time so often, even when we had the smallest need. She prayed for all of us daily, and our family has lost one of the people who prayed most faithfully for us. Grandma knew the truth of Acts 20:35—‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ She was always giving. It was God living through her that enabled her to do this.”
Grandma’s earthly portfolio may have seemed thin, but her treasure chest in Heaven was surely overflowing. I am confident that her Savior met her with the words, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”
When I get to Heaven, it will not matter one iota how many articles or brochures I have produced. As is true for all of us, what will matter is what we have done for God. Even though our work now may often seem mundane with no visible results, the work can have eternal effects. Portfolios here on earth can quickly become outdated or lost or destroyed; a portfolio full of what matters to God will last forever.
“And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up,” (Galatians 6:9).
Taking It Further:
When you feel your work or results of your work are unseen, what encourages you to continue serving?
In what ways do you encourage fellow believers to continue serving?
