Feeling Small?

Scriptures: “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small in the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.” (Micah 5:2)

One of my high-school friends was a very good basketball player. Even though he was only 5’ 3”, he was quick, agile and accurate. As a result, he was elected to play in our school’s basketball team.

One time, I saw him with his face down. So I asked him what went wrong. He shared with me the reason for his low spirit. He had a game that day with a pretty strong team and he was made one of the starting line and that made him very happy.

At one point in the game, he and his teammates were having troubles with their opponents’ defensive strategy. So he decided to dribble around, trying to break the opponents’ defense formation. Little did he know that the players on the other team were more than well trained and they moved much faster than he expected. So, while he was threading in and out, he found himself trapped by 3 “giants”, each of them more than 6’ tall.

I can still remember the way he described it, “It was like stepping into a forest with huge, giant trees all around you. I could not even see any light from above.” Then he went on to say, “I never felt this useless in my life, feeling so small.” At that time, I didn’t know what to say to him for I knew exactly what it felt like.

So often life comes with obstacles that prevent us from achieving our goals and make us feel small. The problem of feeling small is more than just the frustration over one thing. It often discourages us from moving on to other things in life and makes it difficult to be functional in life. Feeling small twisted the way we see ourselves and others. It deprives us of our sense of worth and meaning for life. It’s a terrible thing to have in life.

But thanks to God who does not see things the way we do. Our passage today is a well-known prophecy for the birth of Christ Jesus. Throughout the records of the birth of Jesus, we find something in common: the place He chose for Jesus to be born was a small town called Bethlehem, the parents He chose to raise Jesus was a materially poor couple, and the first witnesses to the birth of Jesus was a group of shepherds, people considered socially lowly then.

These are, in the eyes of man, insignificant places and people, small in the eyes of this world and, maybe, in their own eyes too. But, when used by the hand of God, they became great! No one knows where that manger used to hold baby Jesus is now; no one knows the names of those shepherds who visited baby Jesus in the manger, either. Yet, their roles in the redemption history cannot be over-stated.

As Christmas is quickly approaching and many of us may be feeling pretty small psychologically and financially, the blessings God has for us in this Christmas season are still great because what’s small in this world may be great in the Kingdom of God. This was true back then, when Jesus was born. It is still true today.

Through and beyond that manger, God had the greatest blessing for all mankind. Lowly as they were, that group of shepherds became the first missionaries that proclaimed the good news of the coming of Messiah. If a manger in an unknown inn in Bethlehem 2000 years ago was precious enough for His glorious purpose, aren’t we much more precious to Him?

So, this Christmas, let’s look beyond our feeling small and our circumstances and celebrate He who came and made all small things great for His glory. Remember, God is still in the business of doing extraordinary things through ordinary people, like you and me, in ordinary places, like the very places we are.


Prayer Requests:
For all Christmas celebrations

Prayer:

Our heavenly Father, thank You for blessing us with the best gift of all, our Lord Jesus, who brought light and meaning into our lives. As we are getting ready for the celebration of His birth, help us to invite Him into every celebration of His birthday and making Him the focus of this Christmas season for we pray in the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen!