One stormy night many years ago an elderly couple entered the lobby of a small hotel and asked for a room. The clerk explained that because there were three conventions in town, the hotel was filled.

The clerk, who lived in the hotel, said, "But I can't send a nice couple like you out in the rain at 1 o'clock in the morning." "Would you be willing to sleep in my room?"

The couple hesitated, but the clerk insisted. The next morning when the man paid his bill, he told the clerk, "You're the kind of manager who should be the boss of the best hotel in the United States. Maybe someday I'll build one for you." The clerk smiled, amused by the older man's "little joke."

A few years passed. Then one day the clerk received a letter from the elderly man recalling that stormy night and asking him to come to New York for a visit. A round-trip ticket was enclosed. When the clerk arrived, his host took him to the corner of 5th Avenue and 34th Street, where a grand new building stood.

"That," explained the elderly man, "is the hotel I have just built for you to manage."

"You must be joking," the clerk said. "I most assuredly am not," came the reply. "Who--who are you?" stammered the clerk. The man answered, "My name is William Waldorf Astor."

That hotel was the original Waldorf-Astoria, one of the most magnificent hotels in New York. The young clerk who became its first manager was George C. Boldt.

The clerk did a little thing that stormy night. As the proverb says, a big thing came to him by and by.

Often we get so caught up in our work and in a world that idolizes highly successful and glamorous people that we ignore little things. As a result, we neglect something if it does not have a dollar value or a direct relationship to our success at work.

Do you ignore little things--things like dropping someone an encouraging note, or extending them a deserving "Thank you"? How frequently do you take time out of a workday to help someone, or to help faithful people reach and serve others?

Whether it is in your personal relationships or in your daily activities, "little" can actually be "big." As Saint John Chrysostom said in the Third Century, "faithfulness in little things is a big thing." Even now that truth has not changed. Giant trees still grow from small seeds.

Yes, the hotel clerk did a little thing--and was rewarded greatly. You may not be able to reach millions of people all over the world by satellite, but in your own part of the world you can faithfully do little things to point people toward Jesus. Great will be your reward if you do.

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