Did you grow up in a small town? The town I grew up in was so small we didn’t have a traffic light or even a blinking caution light!
When I was in college and people asked where I was from, I didn’t tell people the actual town I grew up in because no one would know where it was. Instead, I told them about the next town over which was much larger and at least regionally recognizable. Things aren’t much different now, because I still live in a small town.
When people who aren’t from my community ask me where I live, I often refer to the larger city next to me…which also happens to be the Capital of New York. Our capital is on the smaller side for such a populous state and its location isn’t any more well-known to out-of-staters so I’m not sure how much it helps to reference it. In fact, our capital is so small it has a nickname “smALBANY.”
Chances are you grew up in a small town too! You might even live in a small town now!
If you’ve ever been on a cross-country road trip you’ve driven through some of the 1000s of small towns that make up our country. Small towns get overlooked. Small towns are discounted and forgotten…except to the people who live there.
One of the things I recently noticed in the Christmas story was the prominence of a small town.
When the angels had returned to Heaven, the shepherds said to each other, ‘Let’s go to Bethlehem! Let’s see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.’ -Luke 2:15 NLT
The angels had just announced to the shepherds that the long-awaited Messiah had been born! But oddly this long-awaited king wasn’t to be found in the financial capital of the world or the fashion capital of the world, but instead he could be found in the…oh so little town of Bethlehem.
Scholars believe Bethlehem only had a few hundred residents when Jesus was born. As late as 1867 the town only had a population of 3,000-4,000 and today the population is listed around 25,000. Your typical small town.
The Christmas story is so different from how we would have created it or orchestrated the events that would forever change history.
The bringer of joy and peace, the Savior of the world was born in a very small town.
What I want you to consider is that God is still working in and through small towns all around the world! Even to the point others say, “Let’s see this thing God is doing!”
God is still coming to small towns! God is still doing amazing things in small towns all around!
The masses may never hear about it, but it doesn’t mean it’s any less important.
As this baby grew up, he lived, worked, and taught in small towns throughout Israel. Of course, he went to the big city of Jerusalem but he never lived there. Some of the places he spent time in are only remembered today…because he spent time there.
Of course, this doesn’t mean that God doesn’t care about large cities. We know that He does (i.e. Nineveh).
But I hope you know just how important your town is to the work of God. Just because other people may not recognize the name of your town, God knows the name of every person in your town.
Remember, the most life changing event in history happened in a small town. God used a small town to change the world.
God still works in small towns. God still works in your town. And people all throughout the world will be inviting people on Christmas Eve to come meet the Savior, who is Christ the Lord, in their…little town of Bethlehem.
