The Insignificant Ones

Sometimes we feel insignificant. We look at the tasks ahead of us and feel overwhelmed. Sometimes we think about how much it cost our Father to redeem us and we feel undeserving. Sometimes we wonder what in the world was God thinking when He created us and how can we ever fulfill our role in His plan? We all feel this way, sometimes. But, these struggles with human inadequacy are not ours alone. Remember when God called Moses, in Exodus 3? Moses made all kinds of excuses. Moses was not magnificent and powerful. He like the other Hebrew babies was a child of captivity. He was saved only by a basket of reeds and the sharp eye of an Egyptian princess. Although he grew up as her son, he'd already turned his back on wealth and position and had run off in fear to another land. God finds him, not in Pharoah's palace as royalty but in Midian, lamenting his predicament. God took this insignificant man and made from him the rescuer of a nation.
What about Rahab in Joshua 2? This woman, a prostitute the text calls her, insignificant in this mighty city, was used by God. Although unimportant to her society, her ability to recognize God and her willingness to work for Him, made her invaluable. Because of her, the lives of Israel's spies were spared. Because of her, her entire family was spared. Because of her and her Descendant, we are spared eternal damnation. Her seeming insignificance, visible to the world, was lost on the Lord of Lords.
When God chose David, the shepherd boy, to be king over His people, He again demonstrated His love for the insignificant. In I Samuel 16, we see the prophet Samuel, looking over the sons of Jesse to see whom God would choose. The text says that humans thought the oldest, the biggest, the strongest, the most handsome, should be king. Imagine their surprise when God instructed Samuel to anoint the youngest, most insignificant, keeper of the sheep. David, but a teen, was to be used mightily by God, in spite of his insignificance.
Fast forward several hundred years. We see a baby, born out of wedlock, parented by a teenage girl and a lowly carpenter. This babe, would grow up as a laborer, working with wood. He would not be beautiful, charming, popular or charismatic. (Isaiah 53:2-3) Yet, the crowds would follow Him wherever He went. They would talk about His seeming insignificance and wonder how such marvelous things could happen by such a One. Because, through this One, the entire world could know salvation. Through this One, the hungry could eat, the thirsty could drink and the naked could be clothed. Through this One, the weary could find rest, the sinful find forgiveness and the lost find their way. Through this One, the wounded could be healed, the lame could walk, and the dead could live.
No matter how little and insignificant we feel, no matter how afraid and insecure we are, we are a part of Redemption's plan. Our Father, the One who created us, made us useful and valueable and His greatest desire is to live with us for all eternity. That is anything but insignificant.

Neva