When it comes to money, my wife and I don’t always see things the same way. Not that my wife isn’t careful and frugal with money. Rather the problem is that I’m ultra-frugal. I remember my wife telling me that she had bought something: “It was only a few dollars.” Immediately that ultra-scrooge voice was screaming inside my head: “Yeah, but a few dollars add up. It may seem like just a little, but it adds up.”

That exchange got me thinking about how easily we think “It’s only one” or “It’s just a little.” Those on a diet know the caloric consequences of thinking this way.

“Just a minute” to a child turns into an eternity of waiting. “Just a few more minutes” on work breaks rob our bosses of countless hours of production. “Oh, it’s only one little thing,” we think. Yet just a few items shoplifted from retailers cost billions of dollars in losses.

Just one comment to a co-worker or friend can destroy a reputation forever. Just one drink can drag an alcoholic back to drinking. Just one little vote can swing an election. Just a few little heat tiles on a space shuttle or one little O-ring can spell disaster for an unsuspecting crew.

Little bits add up, don’t they? One little thing can have huge consequences. That’s also true in our spiritual lives.

It may seem like such a little thing when we read about Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. It seems like such a little thing to take a piece of fruit and eat it. Yet the consequences of that eating were enormous. Death entered our world. Sin became our nature. To God it was not such a little thing. It was rebellion against his word, doubt of his goodness, thievery of his glory. There is no such thing as a little sin to God. James reminds us that one “little” sin against any of God’s commands breaks them all (James 2:10). Holiness has no loopholes. Perfection invites no compromises. One “little” sin brought condemnation for the entire human race.

It may also seem like such a little thing that a baby was born in a stable. It may seem like such a little thing that Jesus lived a perfect life—not once compromising God’s perfect plan. It may seem like such a little thing for a thirty-something-year-old man to be nailed to a cross along with common crooks. It may seem like such a little thing that a rich man’s grave was reopened. But the result of these seemingly “little” things was seismic. The dying world was shaken to the core. The damnation devouring our race was deleted in the righteousness of a Savior who brought Life with a capital “L.”