We go through our days and there are few opportunities to make big choices.  I believe we are creatures of free choice. Never-the-less most of choices we make are small and make little difference.  Paper or plastic bags at the local market, English muffin or toast for breakfast, brown pants or blue for church, and thousands of other small seemingly small and unsubstantial decisions.  And in the same old, same old life we live, the big hard things that really will make a difference to ourselves or even the world around us rarely come up.  So we go ahead and live our lives making as few decisions as possible; mostly because we feel that each little aggravating decision really doesn’t matter.  We even get a little frustrated when the the waitress has at least five options to complete your order of eggs and bacon.

In Sunday School we studied the story of the S.M.A boys.  You know Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.  They were faced with one of those few and far between decision points in their lives.  It didn’t start out as a turning point type of decision.  They simply remained standing when they were expected to follow the crowd.  They were given the choice to bend their heads and kneel when the orchestra played to a 19 foot statue or keep standing.  Oh there were consequences.  But the first decision was not to go along with the crowd.  I don’t really know if these three thought very long or even realized the importance of their doing nothing while everyone else was doing something.

Nebuchadnezzar escalated the offense and made it about a competition between his grand statue and the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. I have related this because some may need to know the reasons behind the what the title of this is all about.

The King bound the three up and cast them into the furnace which had been prepared for any one not following orders.  But for the SMA boys it was made expectantly hot.

Now here is the part that struck me.  The king looked in and saw the three unharmed and walking around with someone that seemed to the king as godly.  Think about it.  There is the picture.  There is the smile.  There is the sweetness of God’s care.  In the middle of Hell was a little piece of Heaven.

Instead of terrible pain and obliteration it was party time.  The heat was on but they were in the very presence of God.  Walking around and I can almost see these four with the biggest smiles.  Their little choice led to a big choice and that choice was to allow God to be their deliverer.  Their choice was not to go into the furnace; that was the King’s decision.  Their small, “toast or English muffin decision was to simply stand when the music played.

What do you think?  Leave a comment.