In the animated movie Toy Story, a child’s toys come to life whenever he leaves the room or falls asleep. One character, a space ranger named Buzz Lightyear, shouts his signature catchphrase while demonstrating his ability to fly about the bedroom. “To infinity and beyond!”

It’s a phrase that has confused many. Isn’t infinity as far as you can go? How can there be anything “beyond” infinity? Drawing on wisdom from ancient Greek philosophers, mathematician Ian Stewart suggests that what is beyond infinity are yet bigger infinities. On and on and on.

Jesus seems to employ such exponential effort in the realm of forgiveness. When Peter asked Jesus, “How many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?” Jesus answered, “I tell you, you must forgive him more than seven times. You must forgive him even if he wrongs you seventy times seven” (Matthew 18:22). Jesus goes on to tell a parable comparing a merciful and unmerciful servant, making the point that when someone truly regrets their error, there is no limit to the number of times we are to forgive. We are to forgive others the way God forgives us (v. 33). Over and over, on and on.

That may seem impossible to us. That’s why we constantly need to ask God for His help.

Only in His strength can we do this. Forgiven people forgive people. To infinity and beyond!

After our family held a riverside memorial service for my father, we each selected a stone to help us remember him. His life had been a checkerboard of wins and losses, but we knew his heart was for us. My fingers traced my stone’s smooth surface and helped me hold him close.

In Luke 19, Jesus made His triumphal entry into Jerusalem, while the crowds waved palm branches, shouted Hosannas, and cheered, “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!” (v. 38). In the Pharisees’ disdain of what they perceived to a blasphemous claim of messiahship, they ordered Jesus to tell the disciples to be quiet. Jesus replied, “If they keep quiet, the stones will cry out” (v. 40).

 The stones do cry out, in many ways. God used stones throughout the story of His love for us. Two rough-hewn stones carried ten chiseled commandments to tell us how to live (Exodus 34:1–2). Stones of remembrance piled by the Jordan River reminded generations of God’s provision and faithfulness (Joshua 4:8–9). The one rolled into place to contain Jesus’ body is the same one rolled away to show He had risen (Matthew 27:59–66; Luke 24:2). We “hear” this stone as it reminds us of Jesus’ words, “I am the resurrection and the life” (John 11:25).

Listen to the stones and lift your own voice along with them in praise to our loving Father.

Late one night, a Kenyan elephant sanctuary received a call that an elephant calf had fallen into a well. The rescue team arrived to cries of despair flooding the darkness and discovered that two-thirds of the baby’s trunk had been lost to hyenas. Transporting the calf to their safe haven, they named him Long’uro, which means “something that has been cut.” Though he possessed only one-third of his trunk, Long’uro healed and was embraced by the rest of the herd at the sanctuary. Elephants innately know they need each other, so they help each other.

In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul underscores our need to help each other within the body of Christ. He uses the metaphor of the human body and its individual parts to describe how God intends His people to welcome all gifts in all people because all are needed for His body to function (vv. 12-26). Then Paul explains how unity in diversity is accomplished. “God has put the body together,” he wrote, “giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other” (vv. 24-25).

Whether weak or strong, fancy or common, let’s help each other. Like the elephants, people need each other too.

David Vetter died at age twelve after spending his entire life in a bubble. Nicknamed “The Bubble Boy,” David was born with severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID). His parents had lost their first son to the disease and were determined to protect their second-born. To prolong his life, NASA engineers designed a plastic protection bubble as well as a spacesuit so his parents could hold David in the outside world. Oh, how we all long to protect those we love!

King David was wronged by Nabal, the foolish husband of Abigail. In a rogue moment, David sought revenge by his own hands. Abigail rushed to meet him with a wise reminder, “Even though someone is pursuing you to take your life, the life of my lord will be bound securely in the bundle of the living by the Lord your God” (1 Samuel 25:29). The concept of “bundle” conveys the idea of gathering up valuable items so the owner can protectively carry them. Abigail reminded David that God wanted to carry him in a protective bundle. He was safest in God’s hands, rather than in his own. “My lord will not have on his conscience the staggering burden of needless bloodshed or having avenged himself” (v. 31).

We do well to work to protect others when they need it, but it’s only in God’s perfect care that they’re truly safe.

At our wedding shower, our shy friend Dave stood in a corner clutching an oblong, tissue-wrapped object. When his turn came to present his gift, he brought it forward. Evan and I unwrapped it to discover a hand-carved piece of wood containing perfect oblong concentric woodgrain circles and the engraved sentence, “Some of God’s miracles are small.” The plaque has hung in our home for forty-five years, reminding us again and again that God is at work even in the small things. Paying a bill. Providing a meal. Healing a cold. All tallying up to an impressive record of God’s provision.

Through the prophet Zechariah, the governor of Judah, Zerubbabel, received a similar message from God regarding the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the temple. After returning from their Babylonian captivity, a season of slow progress began, and the Israelites grew discouraged. “Do not despise these small beginnings,” God declared (Zechariah 4:10 nlt). He accomplishes His desires through us and sometimes in spite of us. “ ‘Not by might nor by power but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord Almighty” (v. 6).

When we grow weary at the apparent smallness of God’s work in and around us, may we remember that some of His miracles may be “small.” He uses the small things to build toward His greater purposes.

Browsing through the doormats displayed in my local big box store, I noted the messages stamped on their surfaces. “Hello!” “HOME” with a heart for the “O.” And the more customary one I chose, “Welcome.” Putting it in place at home, I checked my heart. Was my home really welcoming the way God desires it to be? To a child selling chocolate for a school project? A neighbor in need? A family member from out of town who called on the spur of the moment?

In Mark 9, Jesus moves from the Mount of Transfiguration where Peter, James and John stood in awe of His holy presence (vv. 1–13), to healing a possessed boy with a hopeless father (vv. 14–29). Jesus then offered private lessons to the disciples concerning His upcoming death (vv. 30–32). They missed His point—badly (vv. 33–34). In response, Jesus took a child atop His lap saying, “Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me.” The word welcome here means to receive and accept as a guest. Jesus wants His disciples to welcome all, even the undervalued and the inconvenient as if we were welcoming Him.

I thought of my welcome mat and wondered how I extend His love to others. It starts by welcoming Jesus as a treasured guest. Will I permit Him to lead me, welcoming others the way He desires?

Seven-year-old Dominic raced down the school sidewalk to his waiting mom. “Our class is going skydiving!” he exclaimed. His mother’s eyes grew wide with surprise. An email to his teacher clarified that the class would be tie-dyeing—not skydiving. Dominic was disappointed. Mom breathed a sigh of relief.

Children often hear something and assume they understand. Similarly, we make assumptions about God and how He works. When His answers or timing are different than what we expect, we may doubt and even distrust Him.

Over and over, Jesus’ disciples made wrong assumptions. When caught in a storm at sea, they saw Christ walking on the water and assumed He was a ghost (Matthew 14:26). They expected Jesus to restore Israel to prosperity only to scatter in confusion as He was arrested and later crucified. When receiving the news that Jesus’ body was not in the tomb, “the story sounded like nonsense to the men so they didn’t believe it” (Luke 24:11).

Jesus comforted His disciples in advance, saying, “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you. He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth. ” (John 14:16–17). This same Helper is available to us. We can cling to wrong assumptions and miss what God is doing. Or we can recognize that we’re still children ourselves, in need of the Holy Spirit’s help to understand God’s work in our lives.

My phone beeped, indicating an incoming text. My daughter wanted my grandmother’s recipe for Peppermint Ice Cream Pie. As I thumbed through the yellowed cards in my vintage recipe box, my eyes spotted the unique handwriting of my grandmother and mother. The recipe would now make its entrance into a fourth generation within my family.

I wondered, What other family heirlooms might be handed down generation to generation? What about choices regarding faith? Besides the pie, would the faith of my grandmother—and my own—play out in the lives of my daughter and her children?

In Psalm 79, the psalmist laments a wayward Israel, which has lost its faith moorings. He begs God to rescue His people from the ungodly and to restore Jerusalem to safety. This done, he promises a restored—and ongoing—commitment to God’s ways. “Then we your people, the sheep of your pasture, will thank you forever and ever, praising your greatness from generation to generation” (V. 13).

I eagerly shared the recipe, knowing my grandmother’s dessert legacy would enjoy a new layer in our family. And I prayed sincerely for the most lasting hand-me-down of all: the influence of our family’s faith from one generation to the next.

My mother discovered my kitten Velvet atop the kitchen counter, devouring homemade bread. With a huff of frustration, she scooted her out the door. Hours later, we searched our yard for the missing cat without success. A faint meow whistled on the wind, and I looked up to the peak of a poplar tree where a black smudge tilted a branch.

In her haste to flee my mother’s frustration over her behavior, Velvet chose a more precarious predicament. Is it possible that we sometimes do something similar—running from our errors and putting ourselves in danger? And even then God comes to our rescue.

The prophet Jonah fled in disobedience from God’s call to preach to Nineveh and was swallowed up by a great fish. “Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from inside the creature. He said, ‘I cried out to the Lord in my great trouble, and he answered me’ ” (JONAH 2:1–2). God heard Jonah’s plea and, “ordered the fish to spit Jonah out onto the beach” (V. 10). Then God gave Jonah another chance (3:1–2).

After exhausting our efforts to woo Velvet down, we summoned the local fire department. With the longest ladder fully extended, a kind man climbed high, plucked my kitten from her perch, and returned to place her safely in my arms.

Oh the heights—and the depths—God goes to in rescuing us from our disobedience with His redeeming love!

Andrew Card was the Chief of Staff to American president George W. Bush. In an interview regarding his role in the White House he explained, “In each staff member’s office hangs a framed statement of purpose: ‘We serve at the pleasure of the President.’ But that does not mean that we serve to please the President or to win his or her pleasure. Rather, we serve to tell him what he needs to know to do his job.” That job is to govern the United States of America.

In so many of roles and relationships we slip into people-pleasing mode rather than building up each other in unity, as the apostle Paul often urged. In Ephesians 4, Paul wrote, “Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith” (vv. 11-13). In verse 15, Paul cut through our people-pleasing tendencies, stressing that these gifts should be expressed by “speaking the truth in love” so that “the whole body . . . grows and builds itself up in love” (v. 16).

As believers in Jesus, we serve “at the pleasure” of our good God in all things, to accomplish His purposes. Whether or not we please others, we’ll please God as He works through us to create unity in His church.