God's Way To Bring Joy

I lived most of my young life in villages of less than 750 people, including people, kids, dogs and pigs!  Everyone knew everyone else's business!  You could never get away with anything!  The only saving grace was that most of those villages only had one telephone and so no one could immediately call my parents!  :)  The big joke was that if you sneezed, your neighbor would holler "Geshundeit!"  Just was true was having intestinal distress and if you hollered enough - a neighbor would bring you a newspaper!  (yeah, no toilet paper back in those days!)

Micah 5:2-5

God Comes To Ordinary Places
Think about this: Bethlehem was a small insignificant town.  So small that it did not appear on any ancient maps.  So small that it had to be qualified in the Old Testament, both times, when it was being mentioned!  How small you ask?  Think in terms of perhaps 150 people and easily even fewer!  So just think on what I said above about life in a small village six times the size of Bethlehem!

Everyone knew everyone.  Everyone knew everyone's business!  Remember those shepherds in the field?  Think they did not tell what they had seen?  Think the stable boy was silent?

News travels fast in a small town.

God Uses Humble People
Remember Samuel in the Old Testament?  He traveled to Bethlehem to find Jesse, to find which of his sons would be anointed as King.  Eventually David is called into town to be anointed by Samuel.  So the most insignificant of towns, the youngest son of Jesse - nothing going for him at all!  And yet, one day he would be King and a man after God's own heart.

God Saves Through A Tiny Baby
Because of a Roman census, all Jews had to return to the towns and cities of their origin.  Joseph was apparently from Bethlehem and so traveled there with a very pregnant teenager named Mary.  She was to give birth, more than likely in a field or corral for the stable in town.  The stable could have even been in a cave!

And again, a postage stamp town, a teenage girl giving birth - I well imagine her screams were heard all over the small town.  A baby is being born, whose is it?, where did they come from, why are they here?  Every town has gossips and the news spread about the baby, the star, the shepherds.  Indeed something worth noticing ...

A child was born.
A child whose destiny was sealed.
A child to die as a man on the cross.

Mighty tough destiny ...  The sole purpose to pay for your sins and mine - because, well, mankind does not do too well in the realm of loyalty to our Creator.

God Looks For Open Hearts
Mary was willing to be used by God.
Joseph was willing to be used by God.
A stable boy was willing to be used by God.
Shepherd boys were willing to be used by God.

But, there were those in town whom were not willing to be used, for whatever reason.  I have often wondered what the thoughts of the inn keeper were ... you know he had to have been visited by some wise men and their entourage ... and learned what had happened that odd night.

God uses small things, to accomplish great purposes ... just like your or me, even when we can not see the purpose nor the possible outcome.  But He can and He will use you, with or without your permission - if for nothing else than as an example ...