Last Word: little

‘Why shouldn’t you hire short people as chefs? Because the steaks are too high.’ ‘I met this really little guy today… he was so down-to-earth.’ ‘Little men are oppressed… they’re always getting overlooked.’

The world loves to laugh at the little. But God delights in the small. After all, Israel was not chosen because they were ‘the largest of nations, but because they were the very smallest’ (Deut.7:7). God told Samuel ‘not to consider height’ and commanded him to choose David, the smallest of the brothers (1 Sam. 16). In the Gospels, the ‘little girl’ is healed (Mark 5:41), and the ‘small in stature’ Zacchaeus (Luke 19:3) is invited for tea. For the eternal kingdom of God belongs to those who understand themselves to be little. ‘Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it’ (Mark 10:14-15). While every passing generation mocks the small, the everlasting God welcomes into heaven those who humbly recognise their littleness. There is a delicious irony here. Time is ever expanding for the little

people of God; they shall receive an eternal kingdom. Yet the big and powerful of this world who persecute them are getting smaller by the day. They shrink, since their sands of time are sinking.