In my sermon this Sunday I spoke about how Muhammad Yunus, this year's Nobel Peace Prize winner, started the Grameen Bank by loaning $27 out of his pocket and thus started what is now known as microloans.
I compared his transformative business model to that of George Bailey in the perenial favorite, It's a Wonderful Life. In the end, George understood what a difference his life made by simply faithfully tending what seemed to be small things. But, in fact, his "nickel and dime Savings and Loan" and his life had a big impact on his community and many other lives.
Likewise, Mary - an unwed, teenage mother in a backwater part of the ancient world - shouldn't even qualify as a footnote to history. And yet because she was faithful in little, her impact is felt through the ages.
Finally, I noted that this day is the centenial anniversary of the first radio transmission of voice and music. Before December 24, 1906 radio was only used for morse code signals. Imagine the surprise of the morse code workers out in the Atlantic hearing that voice through the code! Imagine, further, the surprise of that first broadcaster if he could see what broadcasting has become 100 years later.
As insignificant or impotent as we may feel, it is good this time of year to remember that we are called to be faithful in small things, and these little things may lead to big things.