Today’s Devotional
You, the one who showed up again today. You who made the coffee, packed the lunches, answered the emails nobody will remember by Friday. You who did the thing that needed doing, without applause, without recognition, without anyone pulling you aside to say, “I noticed.”
There is a verse in Zechariah that I keep returning to, and it says something that should stop us cold if we let it. The king is coming. Righteous. Victorious. The language is enormous. And then the prophet describes his entrance: on a donkey. On a colt, the foal of a donkey. Zechariah says it twice, as if making sure we understand this is not an accident or a footnote. The king chose the smallest ride in the stable.
Every empire in history has announced its power with something large. War horses. Gilded chariots. Columns of soldiers stretching to the horizon. Power speaks in spectacle because spectacle is the only language power trusts. And here comes the God of everything, and he picks an animal so ordinary that no one in the crowd would have looked at it twice on any other day. The donkey did not become extraordinary. The king made the ordinary enough. That is a different kind of victory altogether, and it has everything to do with the way you have been living your life when you thought nobody was paying attention.
Time to reflect
Sit with this verse for a moment. Consider:
- Where in your life have you been waiting for someone to acknowledge the quiet, faithful work you do every day?
- When you picture God choosing how to enter the world, does a donkey surprise you, or does it confirm something you already suspected about what he values?
- Is there a place where you have been measuring your worth by the size of your contribution rather than the faithfulness of it?
- What would change in your week if you believed that showing up mattered as much as standing out?
Prayer Of The Day
God, I confess that I have been keeping score. I have been measuring my days by what gets noticed, what earns praise, what looks significant from the outside. And all this time, you have been riding into the world on the back of ordinary faithfulness. Teach me to see my small, repeated acts of showing up the way you see them. Teach me that the donkey was not beneath you, that the quiet road was not a lesser road, that victory does not always arrive with noise. Help me trust that you are present in the work no one applauds. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.
Strengthening Faith
Let the donkey’s example reshape how you see your day:
- Identify one routine task you do regularly that no one thanks you for. Do it today with the conscious thought: this is enough.
- Send a short message to someone whose quiet faithfulness you have noticed but never mentioned. Tell them what you see.
- Read Philippians 2:5-8, where Paul describes Jesus emptying himself of status. Notice what it cost and what it produced.
- At some point today, when you catch yourself wishing your work were more visible, pause and name one person whose invisible work has shaped your life.
- Before bed tonight, write down three things you did today that no one saw. Let the list sit there without needing anyone else to read it.
Today Wisdom
A donkey does not know it is carrying a king. It knows the weight on its back, the dust under its hooves, the road ahead. And that was all it needed to know. Sometimes faithfulness looks like walking forward without understanding what you carry.
