| But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times. |
| —Micah 5:2 |
Sometimes, the most precious and powerful gift can come from the least likely source or location. If you look at the biographies of some of the great men and great women, who have had an overwhelmingly significant positive impact on our nation, you will find that many of these individuals came from families, circumstances, or locales that might genuinely be considered unlikely sources of such greatness.
No person has had more of an impact on the early success of freed slaves than George Washington Carver. Born under slavery in Missouri, his family became free as a result of The Emancipation Proclamation issued by President Abraham Lincoln. As Carver grew to adulthood, he recognized the plight of southern farmers, who had far too long relied solely on cotton to provide a major source of income. He suggested several other far more lucrative crops, including peanuts, that would eventually help thousands of newly-freed slaves rise from sharecropping poverty to heights they would never have dreamed. Out of a very humble beginning, came a man who would change the world.
As we consider this Season of Advent, we must also recognize that the Incarnation of God’s one and only Son, Jesus, came at place considered lowly and unimportant. Hundreds of years before the birth of the Christ child, the Prophet Micah had shared these words, found in Micah 5:2:
But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.
When we consider our own lives and spend time to carefully examine who we are, we need to put aside any fears we have that we are too unimportant to really matter. It is God who determines who’s important. He chooses to use those who are willing, ready, and able to be used, no matter who we are or from where we have come.
Take comfort this day from the reality that God doesn’t care about our origins or our pedigree. He chooses to use those who offer themselves as living sacrifices day after day on behalf of His Kingdom. Just as our Savior came from an insignificant place, born into an insignificant family, who we are or from where we’ve come means little to the God who chose us, before the foundation of the earth, to belong to Himself.
