a liturgy for smallness
The smaller the detail, the more intention you gave it…
Smallness drives the universe you made.
And when we think molecularly we begin to uncover endless miracle.
Father, my prayer is that I would be content
in my smallness.
Small makings. Small means.
I am convinced, through innumerable ways,
your favorite medium to work in is, indeed,
smallness.
You twice divided Gideon’s army;
For it was in the reduction that became
a method for the miracle.
You sent Jesus, swaddled in skin and infancy;
The Essence of Smallness.
& it was then that we knew —
The folds of a newborn’s hand gives way to The Way
and serves as a road map to His heart.
Tiny palms lined with imperfect lineage trace the course
Of eternity.
So when we despise these small beginnings,
Because we have sinned and grown old,*
Making smallness our complaint,
We remember that smallness is a gift,
and furthermore,
it is protection.
It is grace.
For in my smallness there is more room for Your glory.
Less room for my ego and pride and self-sufficiency.
Less room for my independence.
I get more of You in my smallness.
O, God, keep me small
that I might rely evermore on You.
And let me not dismay,
for smallness does not equal forgottenness;
It is in the details that I am seen.
The smaller the detail, the more intention you gave it.
Smallness drives the universe you made.
And when we think molecularly we begin to uncover endless miracle.
Smallness is intimacy.
is intricacy.
is infinite.
Father, we walk in smallness, now better understanding it
Is the gateway to more of You.
& for that, we are not only content in our smallness,
but we yearn for it.
When the world celebrates bigness, You whisper as the
Still Small Voice,
“I rejoice in small beginnings.”
So we begin again, and again.
[And we know that when you multiply our humble loaves and fish,
It is for Your glory and not our own.
And when it becomes about our gain and glory,
We miss You completely.
And our gain is loss,
Because we are lost without You.]
Those who are largely unseen by the world due to smallness
Have the absolute seenness of Creator God.
You sought the marginalized,
the one sheep over the ninety-nine,
and welcome the sojourner.
You became each one of these.
You embodied small in every possible way through your Son Jesus.
Small doors are often humble entries into grand rooms.
As with Jesus, The Way Himself, made himself humble
--and small --
leading us into the grandest room of all.
*Inspired by G.K. Chesterton when he wrote in ‘Orthodoxy,’ “It may be that [God] has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we.”