Did your children ever collect anything when they were little? My son, Sam, used to love to gather acorns. I think it started when he was about two years old. He would go to my parent’s house to visit. He and my mom would be out in the backyard and Sam would start gathering acorns and putting them in a sand bucket. It was their special thing they did together.
We moved to Georgia when Sam was three. I took him and his sister, Laura, to the park close to our house to take a break from unpacking. Sam was having fun exploring the playground while I pushed Laura in the swing. He came walking up with a handful of acorns and asked me if he could send them to Grandma. I nearly burst into tears right there. Since then, every time I see an acorn, I think of Sam and my mom.
Acorns are funny little things. They typically are no larger than a nickel; however, enormous oak trees grow from them. An acorn is a seed. In order for an oak tree to grow, the acorn must first break open and then the growth process begins.
We are a lot like acorns. We may feel small and insignificant; however, when we allow the Lord to break us, He can then bless us and grow us into the man or woman He has called us to be. We only grow out of brokenness.
In Matthew 26:26 we see the Lord taking the bread of the new covenant and breaking it before the disciples and using it to feed them. In Luke 9:13-16 we read the story of Jesus taking the five loaves and two fish and blessing them and breaking them and using them to feed over 5,000 people. It is the brokenness and the blessing of the Lord that makes great things come about from so little.
Maybe you feel like Gideon. In Judges 6:12, he is greeted by the Lord’s angel with “The Lord is with you mighty warrior.” Gideon didn’t see himself as mighty or a warrior. He protested and basically said, “Hey, look, I’m the runt of the litter. What can I do?” Yet the Lord used him to deliver his people from the enemy’s hands, defeating a far larger army.
What has the Lord called you to do that has you saying “Who me?” Is there something before you that looks completely impossible to accomplish? Do you feel you have little to offer the Lord? It doesn’t matter what your situation is, if you will willingly surrender to the Lord, He will take what you give, break it and bless it and then use it to bless the world.
You may look in the mirror and see an acorn, but when the Lord looks at you, He sees a mighty oak tree. Are you willing to embrace what He sees and believe He will bring it about? Don’t settle for small and insignificant when you were destined for great things.