If you’re anything like me, you may judge the value of a gift by its size. How do God’s gifts come?
At the beginning of every December I go to an ornament exchange. The hostess brings packages to your table on a tray and you choose which one you want. It’s often the the largest package that beckons my attention. But in reality, those are harder to hang on the tree. Conclusion–big is not always better.
I’ve found that the smaller gifts are sometimes costlier and/or often more precious. When I think of gifts I have received that have endured the test of time, they are primarily the smaller ones. These are my wedding ring or other jewelry from my husband or one or all of my children. The pictures drawn, poems written, or sentimental letters or cards along with a special photograph are just a few. All of these gifts have something to do with my relationship to another human being. Not surprisingly, they are all connected with one word. LOVE.
God Himself chose to come as a humble baby to deliver, communicate and display His LOVE through a relationship to the world. Small, vulnerable and dependent. He was born in an animal stable. Certainly nothing grand to the human eye.
Jesus cried. He wet His diaper (or bed of hay), became cold, hungry and tired. As Jesus grew He lived an ordinary life working, sleeping, eating, learning how to get along with others and how to obey His parents and authorities. Hebrews 2:17: “He was made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, that he might make atonement for the sins of the people.” He was tempted in every way that we are (Heb. 4:15) so that He may sympathize with us.
He WAS God and yet made a choice not to grasp it, as we are told in Philippians 2:6-8: “Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!”
Because He chose obediance, verses 9-11 of Philippians could be written. “Therefore, God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
That small gift grew to the greatness of laying down His life for many so others could live. He lived a human life as an example for us to become like Him. John the Baptist said I must decrease so He can increase. Jesus said we must lose our life to find it. He came to show us what true “spirituality” should look like.
There is an unspoken myth that to be “spiritual,” life must be spectacular, large or extraordinary. It says you must have some grand ministry or have a big name to be somebody. That’s the world’s way of thinking—not God’s. God loves to use small things to accomplish big purposes.
We have all kinds of examples in the Bible of God using ordinary people (small things) to accomplish His purposes. One came to my mind the other day as I was thinking about the smallness of my own life. I thought of the Old Testament character, Gideon. He said, “My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.” God spoke things about him that were not as though they were, because that’s what God does and called Gideon a mighty man of valor. Despite Gideon’s questions and doubts, God chose to use the smallness of Gideon’s story to display His greatness and glory. He loves to use the “weak and foolish things of this world to confound the wise … so that no flesh will glory in His presence” (1 Cor. 1:26-29).
God wanted to show Israel their victory would not be because of their own strength but His, so He reduced Gideon’s army from thirty-two thousand to only 300 men, and they defeated the entire Midianite army that night.
God loves to use “Gideons” even today because that is when He receives glory. Remember that our stories are never over in this world until we die, so don’t ever judge or despise the smallness of your story or life, because that is where God’s glory can grow! God’s glory grows in the ordinary as we respond and obey, just as Jesus did.
The gospel came to us in the smallness of a baby in a manger to show the bigness of God’s love. Although Jesus was God, He came as a baby and lived a humble life. But now—He is the RISEN LORD of LOVE in all His majesty and glory as the KING of KINGS and LORD of LORDS who has defeated death and hell, saving His people from their sins.
God’s gift of a small baby has endured the test of time—and eternity. Don’t ever measure the significance and impact of a gift by its physical size. The true measurement of its quality is the LOVE behind it, confirming that God things come in small packages.
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).
Little baby in a manger, Son of God above.
Born to die for all my sins, yes, I believe in LOVE. ~Tim Sheppard
Remember that you are eternally loved. There was no beginning and there will be no end to God’s love for you!
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