Weak, small things

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TODAY’S SPECIAL: Luke 2:1-14

TO CHEW ON: “And it came to pass in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. … Joseph also went to be registered, everyone to his own city … to be registered with Mary his betrothed wife, who was with child.” - Luke 2:1,4,5

How often God used weak things to accomplish what He wanted to get done.

• He empowered Moses’ rod to do amazing signs - Exodus 4:2.

• He had Gideon pare his army down to a mere 300 men to defeat the Midianites - Judges 7:1-21.

• Samson took a lot of lives with the jawbone of a donkey - Judges 15:15.

• David felled Goliath with five stones - 1 Samuel 17:40.

• God kept Elijah, a widow, and her son alive for a long time on a handful of flour and a little oil - 1 Kings 17:12-16.

• The end of Israel’s three-year drought began with a cloud the size of a man’s hand - 1 Kings 18:44.

• In our story Jesus was born to a young woman who was just a common citizen. At the beck-and-call of Caesar, she and her betrothed Joseph had to make a trip to Bethlehem at the worst time, with baby due any day. When they got to Bethlehem, they took the only available place—a stable, and that’s where Baby Jesus was born.

The angels announced Jesus’ birth to shepherds, rough, uncouth, despised members of society.

Today, on the threshold of Christmas day, let’s not despise the small things in our lives:
- The opportunity to give a smile or show a kindness to a child, a neighbor, a stranger.
- The prompting to say a prayer for the one who crosses our mind.
- The grace to let someone proceed ahead of us in traffic, a parking lot, a store lineup.
- The lyrics of a song that lift our spirits in praise.

“For who has despised the day of small things?” - Zechariah 4:10.

“But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things that are mighty” - 1 Corinthians 1:27.

PRAYER: Dear Father, thank You that my weakness and inability are not impediments to You. Please be present and active in the smallness of my life today. Amen.

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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.