Great Things From Small Places
“But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall come forth to Me the One to be ruler in Israel, whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting.” -Micah 5:2
As we move closer to celebrating the birth of our Savior, I want to remind you of one of the most remarkable prophecies in all of Scripture — a verse given 700 years before Jesus was born. Micah 5:2 reminds us of a truth God loves to highlight: He often does His greatest work through the smallest, most unexpected places.
In the early 1800s, in Northfield, Massachusetts, there was a quiet, unremarkable farm boy named Dwight. He struggled academically. Many believed he wouldn’t amount to much. Eventually he moved to Boston, where he worked in his uncle’s shoe store. His Sunday school teacher — a simple, faithful man named Edward Kimball — visited him one day, walked into the stockroom, and shared the gospel with him. Dwight listened. Something stirred. Right there between shelves of shoes, he surrendered his life to Christ. That young man was Dwight L. Moody — the greatest evangelist of the 19th century, a man who preached the gospel to over 100 million people.
But here’s the detail we often overlook: Moody didn’t grow up in a powerful city. He wasn’t educated. He didn’t come from wealth. He wasn’t considered especially promising. And Edward Kimball? He wasn’t a pastor, a scholar, or a public speaker — just a quiet man who believed God works through humble places and ordinary people. From a small town through a simple man God raised up someone who would touch the world. When Micah declared that the Messiah would come from Bethlehem, it must have sounded absurd. Bethlehem wasn’t impressive. It wasn’t powerful. It wasn’t wealthy. It was a village — “little among the thousands of Judah.”But God said: “I choose that place. I choose the one no one expects.” Why? Because when God works through what is small, nobody can miss His glory. He works through the weak things to confound the mighty.
Just like Bethlehem, you may feel: overlooked, unnoticed, unimportant, or too small to matter. But Christmas gives a different message: God loves to bring the extraordinary out of the ordinary. He delights in taking what the world calls insignificant and filling it with His presence. Bethlehem teaches us that: Jesus shows up in small towns, in quiet homes, in humble hearts, and in ordinary moments because it’s not about our glory. It’s about His. The Savior of the world didn’t come wrapped in earthly power — He came wrapped in swaddling cloths. He wasn’t born in a palace — but in a place so humble there wasn’t even room for Him. Yet from that small, quiet place came the Everlasting King.
You might be in a season where life feels small: Your job seems unseen. Your efforts feel unnoticed. Your faith feels weak. Your prayers seem whispered into the dark. But the little town of Bethlehem calls out to us today: Bethlehem wasn’t great because of what it had. Bethlehem was great because of who came there. And the same Jesus who chose Bethlehem chooses to dwell in you. He brings greatness where the world sees none. He brings purpose where the world sees ordinary. He brings hope where the world sees smallness. God’s presence brings greatness to our world. Merry Christmas.