Small, but Beautiful
From little acorns, mighty oaks grow
by Helen Bryant (revised, originally published in 2009)
Suitable for Whole School (Sec)
Aims
To consider that tiny creatures are important in maintaining the biosphere, and that big ideas often have small beginnings.
Preparation and materials
- You will need the PowerPoint slides that accompany this assembly (Small, but Beautiful) and the means to display them.
- You will also need Jesus’ words about the mustard seed, which are found in Mark 4.31–32.
Assembly
- Ask the students to raise their hand if they have a pet at home.
Ask the students whether they like animals. - Show Slides 1-7.
The slides show some of the world’s smallest animals. You may wish to ask the students whether any of them know which animal is pictured before you tell them the following information.
- Slide 1 shows a pygmy rabbit, which is the world’s smallest rabbit. Its typical length is 24 to 28 centimetres.
- Slide 2 shows the pygmy marmoset, the world’s smallest monkey. Its body length usually ranges from 12 to 15 cm.
- Slide 3 shows one of the world’s smallest fish, Paedocypris progenetica. It is only 1 cm long.
- Slide 4 shows the world’s smallest cattle breed. They are called Vechur cattle and have an average height of 87 cm.
- Slide 5 shows the world’s smallest seahorse, the pygmy seahorse, which typically measures less than 2 cm in height.
- Slide 6 shows the world’s smallest tortoise, the speckled padloper tortoise. Males measure about 6 to 8 cm in length.
- Slide 7 shows the world’s smallest frog, the Paedophryne amauensis. Its average body length is 7.7 mm. - Make the statement, ‘Small really is beautiful.’
Show Slide 8.
Even something tiny like an ant is perfectly formed and completely in proportion.
Show Slide 9.
A foetus in a mother’s womb can be recognizable as a human being. - Being small doesn’t have to be something that holds someone back.
Show Slide 10.
‘From little acorns, mighty oaks grow.’ - Jesus compared the kingdom of heaven to a mustard seed.
Show Slide 11 and read out Mark 4.31–32.
‘It is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest of all seeds on earth. Yet when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds can perch in its shade.’
A mustard seed is one of the smallest seeds known to humanity. It usually has a diameter of about 1 to 2 millimetres, yet it can grow into a strong shrub, the tallest of all the garden plants. The seed has within it everything that it needs to grow into a strong plant.
All life begins like this, in tiny ways. We all began as a collection of cells and grew into what we are today. Many of us, in fact, are still growing!
Time for reflection
It is important to recognize that even if something is small, it still has much to give. Without tiny insects such as ants, much of nature would not work as it should. Ecosystems and food chains depend on the creatures at the bottom of the chain. Without insects and worms to change the nature of the soil and feed the voles and mice, owls and hawks would soon die out. Everything relies upon those tiny things at the very beginning.
Ideas can often be like the mustard seed. They can start off as tiny flashes of inspiration and grow into world-changing theories and great movements for good in the world. For example, if Sir Isaac Newton hadn’t looked with fresh eyes at the apple falling from the tree, he might never have understood about gravity. Likewise, if we hadn’t understood back in primary school that 1 + 1 = 2, we wouldn’t be able to do the complex maths that we do in lessons today.
Let’s be thankful that small ideas can lead to bigger ones, that a small leap in understanding can grow to a great insight and that small is beautiful.
Let’s also realize that the small steps that we take in learning build the bigger picture of our futures.
Song/music
‘So will I (100 billion X)’ by Hillsong Worship, available at: https://youtu.be/GfVd5x9W1Xc (7.02 minutes long)
