Read the transcript from today's video devotional.
The to-do list stretches endlessly—holiday preparations, year-end deadlines, family gatherings—and that overwhelming feeling whispers, you'll never get it all done, or, you're not equipped for this. Maybe you're staring at a dream that feels too big or a calling beyond your capacity. But what if smallness isn't disqualification? It's God's preferred starting point.
The Prophecy of the Small Village
Seven centuries before Christ's birth, prophet Micah made a stunning prediction from his small rural town in southern Judah.
Micah chapter 5, verse 2 says, "But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, are only a small village among all the people of Judah. Yet a ruler of Israel whose origins are in the distant past will come from you on my behalf."
The Messiah would come from seemingly insignificant Bethlehem. This village was so small it didn't make the list of major Judean cities, known mainly for sheep and shepherds. It seemed an unlikely birthplace for Israel's eternal King. Yet, God chose Bethlehem over Jerusalem, teenage Mary over seasoned priests, fishermen over scholars. Scripture reveals this consistent pattern: God specializes in using the small to accomplish the significant. Paul captures it perfectly—God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.
Your Bethlehem Season
Perhaps you're in your own Bethlehem season, feeling small, overlooked, or unprepared. Maybe you're starting a ministry with limited resources, parenting through exhaustion, beginning a new career, or even bravely just taking your first step toward a God-sized dream. Consider the profound irony: the Creator of the universe chose to enter the world not in a palace but in a stable, not through royalty but through a young girl's obedience, not in Rome but in a forgotten village. Every detail whispers God's heart for the humble, the hidden, the overlooked.
Jesus taught, "Whoever is faithful in very little is also faithful in much." And the Christmas story proves that God accomplishes His greatest works through small acts of obedience, humble circumstances, and just quiet faithfulness. Your current assignment—whether raising children, serving customers, leading a small group, or pursuing education—may feel insignificant. But if God has placed you there, it's sacred ground where His purposes unfold.
God's Perfect Orchestration
The shepherds weren't accidentally in the field that night. The innkeeper's "no room" wasn't a cosmic mistake. Caesar's census wasn't political coincidence. God orchestrated every seemingly ordinary detail to fulfill extraordinary purposes, and He is doing the same in your life today. Your struggles aren't setbacks—they're setups. Your limitations aren't liabilities—they are launching pads for His power. Your Bethlehem moments, those times when you feel forgotten or insignificant, are often where God does His most beautiful work.
The God who chose a stable over a palace, who picked shepherds as His first evangelists, who used a teenage girl to birth the Savior—this same God sees your faithfulness in the small things and celebrates every act of obedience. So lean in to your Bethlehem season. Trust that God has placed you exactly where His glory wants to be revealed. Your smallness is not your disqualification. It's your invitation to watch God do immeasurably more than you could ask or imagine.
