"His lord said to him, 'Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.'" (Matt. 25:21)

An ancient story tells about a king who needed a faithful servant and had to choose between two candidates for the office. He took both at fixed wages and told them to carry buckets of water from a nearby cistern and dump them into a large basket which he had placed a short distance away. He said that he would return in the evening to inspect their work. After dumping a few buckets of water into the basket, one of the men said, "What is the good of doing this useless work? As soon as we pour the water in, it runs out the sides." The other answered, "But we have our wages, don't we? The reason for the work is the master's business, not ours." The complainer replied, "I'm not going to do such fool's work," and throwing down his bucket, he went away.

The other man continued to work and by late afternoon he had emptied the cistern. Looking down into it, he saw something shining at the bottom. It proved to be a very valuable gold ring that had been lost in the cistern. The servant thought: "Now I see the reason for pouring water into the basket! If the bucket had brought up the ring before the cistern was dry, it would have been found in the basket."

Let us be loyal and faithful to the Lord in all things even when we do not fully understand His purpose, and even when we can't see visible results.