My God Is So Small

Tuesday of Advent 3

17 December 2024

Mothers often teach their small children the nursery song, "My God is so big, so strong, and so mighty…" This song is true enough as far as it goes, recounting as it does that God's greatness makes it possible for God to rescue us, "…there's nothing that my God cannot do." However, for us Christians this is only a small part of the story. In fact, all religions believe in their god's basic "bigness." For example, the basic Islamic confession is that their god, "Allah is greatest." The response of the Christian to this claim is not "Christ is greater!" Such a response sounds like the argument between two young children, who while scuffling threaten each other: "my dad is bigger than your dad!"

What is unique to the Christian story is that Christ the eternal Son of the Father was willing and determined to become small. For us Christians the big, strong, and mighty part of the story is that God is so small, so weak, and so vulnerable in Christ born of Mary. And while it does not fit the tune of the child's ditty, "My God is so small, so weak, and so vulnerable…" it is and remains the Christian truth that Christ is so small that "…there's nothing my God will not do" for the sake of my salvation. This is what our Islamic friends really need to know about the true greatness of God, that He was willing to become small of Mary.

The incarnation means that my God is so small. The basic Christian fact of the incarnation flies in the face of the human presupposition that God must be an overwhelmingly grand and glorious presence. How God loves to turn our human expectations precisely on their heads and do what is best for us, rather than what we expect of Him. Perhaps this is why the season of Christmas, quite apart from the frenzy of gift giving, is so attractive to the children (and those who still believe like them) among us. They have a God who is willing to be so small as to be like them and save them. This is a mystery that transcends all wonders.

Gregory Thaumaturgus

"The holy Virgin returned to Nazareth (Lk 1:56); and a decree of Caesar led her to come again to Bethlehem (Lk 2:1); and so, as proceeding herself from the royal house, she was brought to the royal house of David along with Joseph her espoused husband. And there ensued the mystery which transcends all wonders,—the Virgin brought forth and bore in her hands Him who bears the whole creation by His Word. 'And there was no room for them in the inn' (Lk 2:7). He found no room who founded the whole earth by His Word. She nourished with her milk Him who imparts sustenance and life to everything that has breath. She wrapped Him in swaddling-clothes who binds the whole creation fast with His Word. She laid Him in a manger who rides seated upon the cherubim. A light from heaven shone round about Him who enlightens the whole creation. The hosts of heaven attended Him with their doxologies who is glorified in heaven from before all ages. A star with its torch guided them who had come from the distant parts of earth toward Him who is the true Orient. From the East came those who brought gifts to Him who for our sakes became poor. And the holy mother of God kept these words, and pondered them in her heart, like one who was the receptacle of all the mysteries" 

Gregory Thaumaturgus, Four Homilies