Start Small and Go Big

Luke 1:37

Absolutely adorable. I wrote that down, even though I hadn't seen it yet. I'm a prophet. I knew it would be. It's a guarantee, you get little kids to sing and wear costumes and say things... it's going to be adorable.

They think they're people.

I had the benefit of hearing this particular musical over and over again, everytime I drove the kids around. As I listened to it over, and over, and over... In fact, next week all the parents will perform the musical, because we know it! "Fear Not, for the Lord has come..."

See that wouldn't be cute. Because we aren't small.

Two things I loved about it.

Fear Not

If you were able to listen despite the overwhelming cuteness, you heard this over and over: "Fear not."

The Fear Not factor. Just about every time an angelic being appears or God reveals himself in some new way to a human being, you know what the first words are? Fear not. Do not be afraid. That terror you're feeling? Calm down, it's okay.

There is something about the appearance of angels and the revelation of God that's a little terrifying. Not least, the thought: "what am I in for?"

Nobody gets an angelic visitation because they are about to do something easy. Angel shows up, and you just know, something big is going down. And the angel is talking to you, because you're part of it.

Small

Second, right at the end, the angels are disappointed about the size of the "crowd" for their Bethlehem concert in the sky. The crowd seemed kind of small. Luke says the angels appeared to "some" shepherds. Three? Six, maybe? Not a crowd.

In fact, this whole incredible revelation, God made flesh, miraculous virgin birth, the whole thing is like Top Secret. Who knows the secret?

Mary, Joseph. Zechariah and Elizabeth. Some shepherds. Some magi. Simeon and Anna figure it out within a few weeks. But this is down low. The number of people who know about this is maybe a dozen. How small. What a tiny start.

"This is it, this is the big one." The biggest event since Creation, when the Creator steps in, becomes incarnate, takes on flesh, inside His own Creation. This profound moment, this ridiculous miracle, and almost no one knows.

It all starts so small. The biggest news since creation. It all starts so small.

God himself, born as a baby. Infinite Cosmic Power! itty bitty living space. It all starts so small.

God's MO

Isn't that just how God loves to do things?

God loves to use small things to huge changes

God loves to start small and go big.

God has a track record of this:

God picks a faithful man, Abram, and starts a people.

God picks an outcast shepherd, Moses, and rescues a nation.

God shapes a tiny nation on the fringes of world spanning empires.

And in that tiny nation, he picks a tiny town. He picks a young girl, no older than our youth kids.

You, Mary, I'm going to start with you. Just you, your fiancée, your cousin.

And then, I think because heaven just couldn't contain the excitement, they put on this heavenly hallelujah chorus, for 'some' despised unlikely-to-ever-be-believed shepherds. A very, very few understood the hints and prophecies over the centuries.

It starts so very small. So insignificantly.

But God goes big. He takes the small things. He becomes a small thing. A babe in a manger. Lord, King, Savior of the World. A few disciples... to be a Church, a Kingdom that nothing could shake or conquer.

God starts small... and goes big.

We celebrate on Christmas Day, the smallest of beginnings. A tiny child. A tiny few who knew an incredibly big secret. We celebrate because we are in on the secret. We know how big God goes, how incredibly big and profound and far God went. To the cross. To the grave. To resurrection. To the throne of Heaven.

Fear Not... you are small, but God goes big

So add this to your Christmas reflections. God starts small... and goes big.

There are a lot of things in this season that make me feel small. Insignificant.

As the presents pile up, my bank account starts looking insignificant.

Watching the secularization and materialism continue to suck the life out of my favorite holiday... I feel small and insignificant. Powerless to change anything.

In the middle of a workday, reading about a tragedy in Newton, Connecticut that represents a nightmare I didn't know I had yet. I do know, but every parent's worst nightmare. I feel small and insignificant in the face of that level of tragedy.

It's a broken, sinful world... and compared with that I am small. We are small.

I take comfort. I take confidence, I take strength in this: God starts with small things. God starts small... and goes big.

Luke 1:37

The angel says to Mary:

NIV

37 For no word from God will ever fail.”

ESV

For nothing will be impossible with God."

Fear Not: God starts small... and goes big.

Fear Not: God starts small... and goes big.

God, I'm small. Start with me... and go big. Do something amazing.

God, we're small. Start with us.... and go big. Do something amazing.