Recently, I spent a week in the North Woods on a fishing expedition. One part of the trip consisted of a portage around a waterfall from one lake to another. As my companions and I moved from below the falls to the top, we had to wait for our guide to join us. He was delayed a few minutes, and while we stood there, we were surrounded by mosquitoes.

When I say we were surrounded, I do not mean there were several of them; I mean they formed a black cloud over our heads. It was the most mosquitoes I have ever witnessed on any occasion.

We took our coats and tightly wrapped our bodies, exposing only our eyes. We kept waving our hands and arms to push back the cloud of insects. We moved. We sprayed. I even said a little prayer that God would end this plague. I think my words were actually, “I repent.”

After we loaded the boat and took off down the lake, the cloud disappeared behind us, and we were finally free. I could not help but think about those tiny little bugs. One or two are an annoyance, but hundreds, maybe thousands, are enough to bring a full-size human to cry out for help.

Each person who follows Jesus may feel insignificant on their own, but when we work together, there is nothing we cannot accomplish in his name. Together, instead of bringing pain to the world, we can bring light and life that no human can quench.