Words to Treasure
These are the words of Amos. He was a shepherd from the town of Tekoa. Here is the vision he saw concerning Israel. It came to him two years before the earthquake.
Amos 1:1
The boy was nervous in front of all these important people. “Hello,” he said, “my name is Joseph. I have known what it’s like to be very hungry. My family was very poor.”
The audience gasped as a photograph of a skinny, sickly boy came up on a screen. Joseph turned and looked at it. “That was me. But I don’t look that way anymore because people like you came to my village to help us. I am here tonight to tell you to keep helping villages like mine. I’m here to tell you that if you had not helped, I would be dead today. I would not have survived and neither would my sisters and brothers. You have so much, and it takes so little to help someone unimportant like me.” Joseph smiled at the audience. “My mother thinks I am a very fine fellow. Please listen to the words of this fine unimportant boy. God bless you.” The audience was silent and then they cheered.
God doesn’t just speak through important people, movie stars, and rock stars. Sometimes he speaks the loudest through everyday people with a really big message.
People in Bible Times
The prophet Amos was just an ordinary shepherd and farmer, but God gave him big visions. A vision is like a dream you have when you’re fully awake. God often talked to prophets in visions by giving them pictures to see in their minds or words to hear. God makes the ordinary extraordinary.