There’s a story that, during the construction of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, the architect, Christopher Wren, visited the jobsite and stopped to ask a construction worker what he was doing. Not recognizing Wren, the worker straightened up, squared his shoulders, and replied, “I am helping Sir Christopher Wren to build this great cathedral” (Bruce Barton, “What Can a Man Believe,” pp. 251-252).
No matter how small the thing we are doing, we can find satisfaction in it when we see how it fits into the big picture. In fact, for the big picture to be “great,” the small things need to be done as rightly and as well as the big things. The challenge for each of us is to decide toward what big picture we’re working.
The ultimate “big picture” is the manifestation of the kingdom of heaven in our lives. This kingdom contains both only good and all good. Everything within it is useful, harmonious, beautiful, capable, and loved, including each of us in our true, spiritual selfhood.
The Apostle Paul implied that, when understanding, experiencing, and expressing the harmony of God’s kingdom is our big picture, how we do the small things does matter. He wrote, “Whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men” (Colossians 3:23). We can think of Paul’s words as a call to watch our thoughts in every aspect of our lives to keep every thought oriented Godward. This brings blessings to our lives.
The Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, points out that this was true of Jesus, who is our example, in relation to the Christ, his divine nature. She writes, “This spiritual idea, or Christ, entered into the minutiæ of the life of the personal Jesus. It made him an honest man, a good carpenter, and a good man, before it could make him the glorified” (“Miscellaneous Writings 1883-1896,” p. 166).
Within the cultural context of the time in which Jesus lived, he was probably expected to live out his life as a carpenter, because that’s what the man the world considered to be his father, Joseph, did for a living. That Jesus had a different sense of his life’s work is reflected in his answer to his parents during an incident when he was 12 (see Luke 2:41-49). He’d gone missing following the family’s visit to Jerusalem, and his parents had been worriedly searching for him for three days. They finally found him in the Temple, talking with experts in Jewish law and theology.
When Jesus’ parents asked him why he had disappeared without letting them know where he would be, he replied, “How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be about my Father’s business?” While Joseph, a carpenter, acted as his human father, Jesus understood his real Father to be God. And his real life’s work was demonstrating to the world God’s love and power and the true man’s expression of that love and power.
The Bible records Jesus beginning that career publicly years later. Up to that point, the likelihood is that he did, in fact, work as a carpenter. But according to Mrs. Eddy, the Christ, the true idea of God, was entering into the tiniest details of his life.
Isn’t that what Paul is enjoining upon each of us? To let Christ enter the tiniest details of our lives as well? This isn’t passive. Yes, Christ is always active in every human consciousness, but we need to choose to listen and to act on what we hear. The temptation is to think of ourselves as limited, material beings who, at times, produce only “good enough.”
But God, Spirit, created man – the true, spiritual identity of each of us – in His image and likeness, to reflect Him (see Genesis 1:26, 27). That’s our real, eternal role – to express every quality of God in a way that’s wholly unique and original to us. If we’re expressing grumpiness, reluctance, resentment, or any other ungodlike quality as we do any task, then we’re not turning toward divine Truth.
The true, spiritual selfhood of each one of us is a vital element in the infinitely grand universe of Spirit. Taking the opportunity of every right task, however small, to consciously let God’s qualities be expressed in our thoughts and actions will increasingly reveal that grand whole to us and enable us to see the good it contains reflected in our experience. We’ll also find Christ increasing the good we can do for others.
Adapted from an article published in the March 9, 2026, issue of the Christian Science Sentinel.
