Billie Holiday’s most famous song was a bitter lament that people were stuck in their life destiny—“Them that’s got shall get; them that’s not shall lose.” It sure does seem that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, doesn’t it?

Except when God reverses everything. Mary must have laughed out loud to herself at the outrageousness and absurdity that the King of kings should be born to a poor commoner like her. “He . . . has lifted up the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things” (Luke 1:52,53). She didn’t know the half of the humble part—she was probably expecting to give birth in Nazareth with her mother and aunts around as midwives to help her with the delivery. Her baby, though, would come during an unplanned overnight “camping” stop in a stable in Bethlehem, attended by only her scared husband and the animals.

But God guided all of these humbling circumstances, and the baby was fine. As she predicted, humble Mary was indeed lifted up. Though she probably never became wealthy, this little “Nazareth nobody” has become the most famous woman in the history of the world.

God enjoys making great things out of small things and using ordinary people for extraordinary missions. If you feel small and insignificant, Mary would counsel you to not look surprised when God taps you for something big.