This week, I read a devotional that spoke about Hannah from the Bible. If you are not familiar with her, she “gained fame” for two reasons. First, she went a long time without being able to bear children and secondly, when she did have a child…well…whoa!

Back in the ‘old days,’ not having children was a really big deal. People did not choose to not have kids like so many do today. In fact, the more kids you had, the better! Remember Jacob and his twelve sons? (He probably also had daughters so wow – that’s a lot of mouths to feed!)

But why was having children such a big deal? Well, for eons, the people were waiting for a Savior to come into the world. They didn’t know when or how, or by whom, but they knew He was coming (Genesis 3:15).

Could you imagine? Every woman for thousands of years had the hope of being the mom of the Savior of the world. So, if you didn’t have kids, then your thoughts were likely “Guess, it’s not me.” This likely led to feelings of hopelessness and “smallness.”

Remember our pals Abraham and Sarah? Childless for nearly ten decades? All that time, Sarah must’ve felt pretty bad about herself. Now, I don’t know if this is biblically accurate or not and I don’t presume to know. 

However, when I couldn’t become pregnant for a long period of time, I sure felt helpless and hopeless.

But then God stepped in.

There’s not enough room here to go into all the details of Hannah, so I encourage you to read about her (1 Samuel chapters 1 and 2). I’m going to jump to the end in which she gives birth to the prophet Samuel. Samuel’s a big deal because he was the one who anointed David to be king. And…guess whose lineage Jesus came from?

Yep. David.

“There shall come forth a Rod from the stem of Jesse, And a Branch shall grow out of his roots.” (Isaiah 11:1 NKJV) (Emphasis mine. Jesse was David’s father.)

God took the ordinary things – the ordinary people – and created the extraordinary! Hannah, a “regular Jane” became the mom of a major prophet who in turn was the pivotal figure in anointing David, the best king Israel ever had. Then, from his lineage, the Savior of the world, Jesus was born.

I suspect Hannah’s feelings of hopelessness and helplessness went away pretty quickly! I suspect she was beyond grateful for God’s hand in her life. I suspect she told everyone the minute the EPT test came back with a plus sign. (Ok…now I really am stretching it, but you get it.)

The Bible tells us not to despise our small beginnings because God can do a lot with a little.  All He requires is our faith and our obedience to do what He asks us to do. We have a part and so does He.

“Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin, to see the plumb line in Zerubbabel’s hand.” (Zechariah 4:10 NKJV)

Our troubles come when we try to do God’s part, when we bemoan our circumstances and try to get ahead of God. In essence, we are trying to force Him into our timeline. But God’s ways are higher than ours. He knows the perfect time to birth our miracle. 

So while we wait, let’s try to have a good attitude knowing that our Father loves us and wants nothing more than to bless us. And guess what else? His mercy towards us  when we do dumb stuff while trying to “force His hand into our timeline” is new every day.

“Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, Because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “Therefore I hope in Him!”” (Lamentations 3:22-24 NKJV)

This week, I want encourage you to be grateful for your ordinary while you wait for your extraordinary…because it’s coming!

While God is in charge of the miraculous, we all have a part to play, no matter if it’s big or small. If you’d like to find out more, then watch or listen to the Elevate The Day Podcast episode, “You Have A Part In Your Miracle.” Click here to listen or watch now.