little isn’t much

Week 35 Matthew

One of the stories in Matthew is The Storm on the Sea of Galilee.
In this story Matthew is making the point that the Lord is the Supreme Master of Meteorological Events. So while I put together my Composite Sketch of the Lord’s Spheres of Influence this story checks off one big box.
But I also notice something right in the middle of this demonstration. Just before calming the waves the Lord says to the disciples: why are you afraid? You have so little faith.
I just read that exact phrase and so I page back to Matthew 6:30. Little faith.
I get out a word book and look up little faith. Matthew uses the expression four times.
Little is a quantitative word. Let’s say I draw a vertical scale – something like one of those old mercury thermometers – and I call it my Faith Scale. The bottom registers a basically zero amount of faith. No faith at all. The top is a maximum amount of faith.
Where is little on this scale? Somewhere close to the bottom. I wish little was not so inexact. I’d prefer a scale of one-to-ten where the disciples’ little-faith is – let’s say – a #2 on the scale.
But let’s face it: my personal concern is that if faith is actually measurable then where am I on the scale?
The fact that the disciples were low on the scale is only a small consolation.

Note: quote from Matthew 8:26 (NLT)