Daily Worship

The significance of the insignificant

Jane Denniston November 30, 2020 0 2
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Micah 5:2 & Luke 2: 4-6 (NIVUK)

Micah 5

2 ‘But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,
    though you are small among 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.’

Luke 2

4 So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. 5 He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. 6 While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born,

God often chooses the little things. Throughout the history of his engagement with us he spoke through the prophets; often unexpected people, people on the margins, people who were not instantly obviously God’s messengers.This practice of sneaking in by the back door reached its culmination in the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem, one of the least of the towns of Judah. Both the place and the circumstances of his birth were remarkable in their humbleness. Not only a small insignificant backwater of a town, but also an insignificant and ordinary couple; not rich, not important. And in an insignificant place, not even a bedroom, just a spare corner. The odds were stacked against this baby’s survival. A stable — draughty and dirty, no midwife, and a young girl having her first baby. And then Herod’s vendetta. But God’s plan, revealed through the prophets, came to fruition in spite of the odds.

In my life, I have often found God working in small and unexpected ways. An unexpected person speaking a word into my situation that is clearly the word of God. The line of a song, or a sentence in a book which leaps out at me revealing something new. A difficult situation resolving in an unexpected way. How has God worked in your life unexpectedly? Who have been your prophets?

PRAYER:

Father, we thank and praise you
that you use the small and insignificant do your work.
That you don’t often use the powerful,
who have experienced so much of this world’s benefits already.
We are small and insignificant,
and we pray that you would use us
to be a prophet for someone else
to bring your word to them. Amen.