The Remaining Tennis Balls

I'm making plans for my tennis balls. I plan to keep the eighth one. I want to keep at least one, and this one is special in that it represents contentment and diligence and other lessons I've learned from this experience. Another four haven't found homes yet, and might just stay in ours, but the remaining three have already been given away.

Yesterday, after successfully claiming the eighth tennis ball, I told a coworker of mine about my experience and showed him my spoils. Knowing that there's little sense in keeping so many tennis balls when I don't even play tennis, I offered him some. He took three and told me that he's going to use them to play with his niece. It's weird to think this about tennis balls, but it warms my heart to think that they're going to do some good and make people happy. It's so wholesome. I never realized that tennis balls could give people joy.

I'm not sure what I'll do with my four remaining tennis balls (not counting the eighth). Perhaps I'll give them away too. Or maybe I'll put them to work as fabric softeners here at home. Whatever I do with them, I want them to do some good.

And that's probably exactly what God wants from each of us. God gave us a lot of freedom when He sent us here. He generally lets us conduct our lives as we choose. Naturally, He wants us to do some good with our lives, but what form that good takes is largely up to us. Caring for youngsters is certainly a worthy endeavor, as is working to build and maintain the Kingdom of God, including our own homes. These are lofty goals for tennis balls, but they can do their part, and we can do ours.

Service does not need to be great in order to be good. Even the smallest and least significant among us (if any of us can truly said to be "least significant") can do a great deal of good, probably more good than we know. I don't think the tennis balls know how much good they're doing, and I don't think that we know, either. We may feel smaller than a handful of tennis balls, but we still have a place in this world, and God has work for each of us to do. If even tennis balls can do a small amount of good in this world, we certainly can as well.