God’s work always seems to start small.
Creation begins with two words in Hebrew, “Be, light!” And if you study physics, you learn to think of light as being made up of photons, the tiniest of all particles, so small that they have no mass at all.
When Samuel told Saul that all Israel would look to him, Saul replied:
"But am I not a Benjamite, from the smallest tribe of Israel, and is not my clan the least of all the clans of the tribe of Benjamin?" — 1 Samuel 9:21
Despite Saul’s belittling description of himself and his family, God made him king of Israel.
Later, tragically, Saul lost himself to disobedience and madness, and relentlessly pursued a fugitive sheepherder turned homeless guerilla. The target of Saul’s persecution described himself this way:
"Against whom has the king of Israel come out? Whom are you pursuing? A dead dog? A flea?” — 1 Samuel 24:14
But David the flea went on to become David the definitive King of Israel.
When Elijah asked a widow from Zarephath for a piece of bread:
"As surely as the LORD your God lives," she replied, "I don't have any bread—only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug. I am gathering a few sticks to take home and make a meal for myself and my son, that we may eat it—and die."
Elijah said to her, "Don't be afraid. Go home and do as you have said. But first make a small cake of bread for me from what you have and bring it to me, and then make something for yourself and your son. For this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: 'The jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the LORD gives rain on the land.' " — 1 Kings 17:12-14
Isaiah comforted a forlorn and oppressed people with these words:
Then will all your people be righteous
and they will possess the land forever.
They are the shoot I have planted,
the work of my hands,
for the display of my splendor.
The least of you will become a thousand,
the smallest a mighty nation..." — Isaiah 60:21-22
When the time came for God to show Himself to the world, He reached down to this planet that is so big to us, but so tiny to Him, and planted a baby.
Jesus described his relationship to God’s unfolding revelation this way:
"... until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.” — Matthew 5:17-18
And Cameron’s sermon for today considers one of the smallest of parables:
"The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all your seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and perch in its branches." — Matthew 13:31-32, with a parallel in Mark 4:30-32
After the crucifixion, Jesus’ lonely body was planted in the earth in a borrowed grave; but what sprouted from that small tomb changed the world.
And when the pressures and temptations and stresses of this world seem to grow large to me, I need to plant my little bit of faith beneath His feet, and let Him nurture it beyond my ability to achieve or even imagine.
What we consume at this table, the little bit of unleavened bread, the few drops of the blood of the grape, offer almost no nourishment to our bodies, but they connect our souls to a feast that nourishes us for eternity.
Let us plant our thoughts in Calvary, our minds in His word, our hearts and lives in his infinite merciful kindness, and trust him to provide the harvest.
Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.
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