BRASWELL: Just a little spice changes things

Some weeks ago I wrote an article for this column and talked about our prayers for rain and shared some of the questionable reasons people gave me for no rain.

I mentioned the bad clergy.

Ironically, I have to share that I left town twice during the days after, and it rained twice. I think my congregation is collecting an offering to send me out of town permanently. Though that “little laugh” was only a passing thing, it helped me and others.

The rain wasn’t a lot, and we need much more, but the ‘little bit’ helped us cope some better.

Life is like that. Little things can make it better — an unexpected smile or greeting, that cherished letter or card in the mail from a friend, or an unexpected gift or compliment. How welcome, and what a big difference they make. A little negative can also turn a day sour.

We would all do well to spend some time considering the little “graces” we could pass along to others to help create that “sweet surprises” of even a little rain. All of us are given opportunity to share in it. The Spirit of God working in history does affect people and circumstances even those who remain strangers to its real meaning. The habit of seeing God and his grace in the providence of ordinary life is where happiness is created and those who lose that habit and look only for the miraculous and spectacular often at the same time slip into superstition and unbelief. It’s the little graces that illuminate us to keep on keeping on day by day. A little salt, sugar or spice in the right place makes the rest of life tolerable.

It was Jesus who actually called us “salt” — salt for the world to help flavor and bring goodness to life. The opposite can happen too if we are not careful. One negative can change all the positives.

Working my way through college, I worked at the then-Wolfe Nursery on Andrews Highway. I ate lunch every day at the Whataburger and grew to be good friends with the manager. He had at one time traveled with and sang bass with Roy Orbison. The employees would cover a fried pie with ice cream and give it to me for dessert.

One day everything tasted strange. The cook had used salt instead of sugar in the pies. Just a little can change everything.

I’ve never forgotten the experience; and it reminds me to be careful how I “spice the world.”