From overhead, a security camera captured an unseen force as it buckled the floor of the National Corvette Museum in the US. Suddenly a sinkhole yawned from below, devouring several prized sports cars. Among the buried vehicles was the one-millionth Corvette ever produced.

Officials decided to restore the vehicle by scrapping the damaged parts and installing new ones. But as the restoration team removed each piece, they discovered most had been signed in hidden spots by the factory workers who installed them. To the restorers, this made each part irreplaceable.

Those factory workers never expected their ordinary autographs would see the light of day—but they were wrong.

As the apostle Paul warned about the dangers of church divisions, he turned the subject to what is hidden. “On the judgment day, fire will reveal what kind of work each builder has done,” he wrote. “If the work survives, that builder will receive a reward. But if the work is burned up, the builder will suffer great loss” (1 Corinthians 3:13-15). Paul’s words in the next chapter are both a warning and a comfort: “[God] will bring our darkest secrets to light and will reveal our private motives” (1 Corinthians 4:5).

We praise the “big” things that people do for Christ, but it’s the unnoticed things that bring joy to the heart of our Father—the lonely person we give time to; the prayer with a friend; the mundane work done faithfully. “Nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless,” Paul declared (1 Corinthians 15:58).

Whatever you do today, know that your work is irreplaceable if done for God. He uses our quiet efforts to accomplish His extraordinary work of restoration. We can only imagine the magnificence of the end result!

NLT 365-day reading plan passage for today: Colossians 3:1-17