“If it had not rained in the night between the 17th and the 18th of June, 1815, the fate of Europe would have been different. A few drops of water, more or less, decided the downfall of Napoleon. All that Providence required in order to make Waterloo the end of Austerlitz was a little more rain, and a cloud traversing the sky out of season sufficed to make a world crumble.”—Victor Hugo, Les Miserables
So much in life, we are witness only to effects never thinking of their cause. We do not wonder why a man is this way or that. We see only that he is. What draws a man to light? What sets his sight to darkness? How fine, and near-indiscernible, are definitive moments that shape a man and begin one’s course for one or the other?
I do not believe men are born with bad design, nor do I believe men are fated to be angels. There are forces throughout lives that shape, guide, and redirect our course throughout life, and—if most are like me—the balance often holds us near to a mean of humility defined as “being human.”
Maybe we are merely another body of randomness defined by science as driving ever further towards a greater state of disorder, but when I look at our world—the features and systems of my own self—there is too much beauty, wonder, and purposeful design for me to believe the latter. I believe we are part to a greater purpose. Every day, we shape the world around us with small, seemingly insignificant, acts that build to this greater purpose. It is a purpose we do not see, a reason we do not know, and yet we shape it all the same.
There are things in this world that need raised, and others—like Napoleon at Waterloo—that need made low. Every day, our acts are as a few drops of water scattered upon this world. Providence works through us as well as the Heavens. To what end do our acts advance the world?
It is not for us to know how our small effects today may shape others of greater future consequence, how a kind act may raise a kingdom or cause what needs made low to crumble. Live the good, a simple as it is, and our few drops of water may be the last Providence requires to achieve its greater design and end.