“Faith like a mustard seed.”* That’s one of those bizarre statements of Jesus. How can something so seemingly insignificant be the measure by which a person’s faith could move something so significant as a mountain?
But there you have it — the irony of God.
It’s almost as if he’s daring you to think small enough to allow him to prove his power.
I dare you, God…
- to have a teenage virgin give birth to a baby who is called Emmanuel – God with us.
- to chose her from a town (Nazareth) that wasn’t even mentioned in the Old Testament and seemed to carry no significance in messianic prophecies.
- to allow him to be born in a stable, of all things — not even in a real house, much less a hospital.
- to bring the Messiah from a family so poor that they could only offer the dove sacrifice for his consecration.
- to announce his birth to shepherds, out in the middle of nowhere, watching sheep.
- to gather around him a scraggly, uneducated group of men, made up of fishermen, tax collectors, zealots, doubters and even a traitor.
- to allow women to be the first to witness the resurrection.
Because of their insignificance, none of these could claim any glory for themselves. God had to have been behind it all.
I dare you, God, to put this message in a jar of clay — me, a broken, fallible person, just so you can shine all the brighter through me.
Oh, but wait, you have.
That’s the irony of it all.
Grace and Peace
*Matthew 17:12.