Little and Small
In a world that values big and tall, let us strive for little and small.
“God is not in the vastness of greatness. He is hid in the vastness of smallness. He is not in the general. He is in the particular.”
-Pearl Buck
On Christmas Day 20221, Pope Francis gave a Christmas homily that caught my attention. It was good. It was powerful. It was challenging.
He used the word “ littleness.” I like that word.
This word caught my attention because in two previous writings-Beautiful Grace (written under the pseudonym Elijah Stevens in 2017) and Beauty of Small Things (published in 2021) I used the word “smallness.” I like that word, too.
Most importantly Jesus, without using either of those words, talked about getting small (or little) as a key for faithful, God-honoring, Christ-following, world-transforming living.
So, what follows is more or less a “quote collage” challenging us to see our “littleness” in a new light and to embrace the potential of “smallness” as we seek to live Christlike lives in a world that values big and tall over little and small.
That is the sign: a child, a baby lying in the dire poverty of a manger. No more bright lights or choirs of angels. Only a child. Nothing else… (Pope Francis)
Only a child.
This is the plan.
The Gospel … relates the birth of Jesus beginning with Caesar Augustus, … in all his grandeur. Yet immediately thereafter it brings us to Bethlehem, where there is no grandeur at all: just a poor child wrapped in swaddling cloths, with shepherds standing by. That is where God is, in littleness. This is the message: God does not rise up in grandeur, but lowers himself into littleness. Littleness is the path that he chose to draw near to us, to touch our hearts, to save us and to bring us back to what really matters. (Pope Francis)
In the births of all three of my children, my hands have been the hands that held their heads up as they made their first appearance in this world, their tiny necks unable to support their weight. And though I did not wait long to hand them off to their waiting mother, for a brief moment my hands held them in all of their newborn helplessness-fragile, weak, and completely dependent in every way.
Brothers and sisters, standing before the crib, we contemplate what is central, beyond all the lights and decorations. We contemplate the child. In his littleness, God is completely present … Let us be amazed by this scandalous truth.
The One who embraces the universe needs to be held in another’s arms. The One who created the sun needs to be warmed. Tenderness incarnate needs to be coddled. Infinite love has a miniscule heart that beats softly. The eternal Word is an “infant”, a speechless child. The Bread of life needs to be nourished.
The Creator of the world has no home.
Today, all is turned upside down: God comes into the world in littleness. His grandeur appears in littleness. (Pope Francis)
Wow.
Go back and read those words again.
Imagine holding this child — completely dependent on you for its survival — and try to understand how…and why…God, the Creator, the Everlasting, the Almighty, would choose this mode of operation for the salvation of humankind?
Holding my own children in their most fragile state changed my life. What might happen to our lives if we were to embrace our God, who came in all the fragileness of a newborn in order to redeem our lives…and then asked us to make ourselves small as a means of bringing redemption to the world?
Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.
-Philippians 2:3b-7
A baby…a servant…valuing others above ourselves.
It’s not exactly how our culture tells us we ought to live our lives, is it?
Let us ask ourselves: can we accept God’s way of doing things? This is the challenge of Christmas: … [God] makes himself little in the eyes of the world, while we continue to seek grandeur in the eyes of the world, perhaps even in his name. God lowers himself and we try to become great … Jesus is born in order to serve, and we spend a lifetime pursuing success. God does not seek power and might; he asks for tender love and interior littleness. (Pope Francis)
“People who are servants-humbly, honestly, and joyfully-keep getting revealed as the biggest winners. People who recognize and embrace their smallness keep getting bigger and bigger in God’s eyes. It’s the oddest scoring system.”
— John Ortberg
At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who, then, is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”
[Jesus] called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
— Matthew 18:1–4
Could it really be that the path to authentic, meaningful greatness is by becoming smaller, lower, and less than?
But … what about … how then … ?
In case there is any doubt Jesus, himself, makes things pretty clear:
Matthew 20:26–27 — “… whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave — just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve …”
Mark 10:43–44 — “… whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all.”
Luke 9:48 — [Jesus] said to them, “… For it is the one who is least among you all who is the greatest.”
John 12:26 — “Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me.”
Littleness and leastness are God’s plan and call for those who would follow him. Where Jesus goes those who follow him will go. Where he is those who follow him will be.
Smallness is subversive, because smallness can creep into smaller places and wreak transformation at the most vulnerable, cellular level. In a time when largeness is threatening to topple us, I wish to remember and praise the beauty of smallness… (Sarah Ruhl, quoted in Beautiful Grace)
Jesus spent his time with those not taken seriously, those who were too low to matter, those who had little to offer. Most shocking of all, he spent time with those considered unclean and unworthy of either time or attention. In the smallness of his day-to-day interactions and activities, Jesus brought about God-sized redemption and transformation!
Smallness is incarnational and relational — connecting with people in brief moments and small ways that lead to continued conversation and dialogue. Smallness begins with average, ordinary people like you and me being present and living in the now … (Beautiful Grace)
This is what we should ask Jesus for at Christmas: the grace of littleness. “Lord, teach us to love littleness. Help us to understand that littleness is the way to authentic greatness” … to believe that God desires to come into the little things of our life; he wants to inhabit our daily lives, the things we do each day at home, in our families, at school and in the workplace. Amid our ordinary lived experience, he wants to do extraordinary things. (Pope Francis)
Smallness is the precision blade by which the Holy Spirit forms and shapes Christlike disciples and the way that God continues to lead the Body of Christ to the ends of the earth — both the spiritual and geographical ends. When we begin to see the people that surround us, we begin to see the small, but meaningful, opportunities all around us; opportunities to share sparks of God’s beautiful grace.
Jesus does not want to come merely in the little things of our lives, but also in our own littleness: in our experience of feeling weak, frail, inadequate, perhaps even “messed up”.
… if, as in Bethlehem, the darkness of night overwhelms you, if you feel surrounded by cold indifference, if the hurt you carry inside cries out, “You are of little account; you are worthless; you will never be loved the way you want”, tonight God answers back.
Tonight he tells you: “I love you just as you are. Your littleness does not frighten me, your failings do not trouble me. I became little for your sake … don’t be afraid of me. Find in me your measure of greatness. I am close to you, and one thing only do I ask: trust me and open your heart to me”. (Pope Francis)
There is no person too little, too small, too insignificant, or too far gone, that God does not reach out with a healing hand…and merciful hand…and a hand of infinite love.
God uses ordinary people to do extraordinary things. Therein lies the power of smallness … You can smile and give a simple word of encouragement. You can lend a helping hand to someone in need. You can sit in a chair, drink coffee, and ask meaningful questions. You can listen and care and be available. You can share your story about how God has worked in your life. You can pray for people. You can pray with people. You can make a difference in so many small, but meaningful, ways. (Beauty of Small Things)
We are concluding a year that, for many of us, did not play out anything like what we had hoped or imagined. As we embark on the journey of 2022, maybe it’s time to offer to God our littleness. Maybe it is time to embrace smallness. Maybe…just maybe…God is able to do more with my smallness in his hands than I am able to do with my own greatness in mine. Lord, grant us the grace of littleness!
Happy New Year!
A few quotes to ponder:
“He who stays not in his littleness, loses his greatness.” — Saint Francis de Sales
“So much of life is in the smallness of moments…but they are harder to mark. So we need the grander celebrations and occasions. People like to feel significant.” — Ally Condie
“Its smallness is not petty; on the contrary, it is profound.” — Jan Morris
“The theology of littleness is a basic category of Christianity. After all, the tenor of our faith is that God’s distinctive greatness is revealed precisely in powerlessness. That in the long run, the strength of history is precisely in those who love, which is to say, in a strength that, properly speaking, cannot be measured according to categories of power. So in order to show who he is, God consciously revealed himself in the powerlessness of Nazareth and Golgotha. Thus, it is not the one who can destroy the most who is the most powerful…but, on the contrary, the least power of love is already greater than the greatest power of destruction.” ― Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger
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S.E. Fairbanks is the founder of Do Everything In Love Community, and author of Beautiful Grace: The Heart of Transformation (written under a pseudonym) and the Beauty of Small Things. He is a cross-cultural educator, ordained minister, and fan of the Portland Trailblazers who loves spending time writing, photography, singing, and spending time with his wife and three children.
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Originally published at https://sefairbanks.substack.com on December 30, 2021.
