The thumb said, “I am the most important.
                                I have authority over who lives and who dies.
                                I can start something or shut it down.
                                I can approve or disapprove.
                                And when the fist crashes down, you will be smashed but I still stand.”

The index finger said, “I am the most important.
  I am wiser than all of you.

  I can tell one person to come, another to go left and a third to go right.
  I sort things in any direction and count them out: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.
  I can hush the crowd.
  I can make the point.
  I can send them forth.
  I forever stand as ‘Number 1.’”

The middle finger stood up and boasted, “I am the most important.
  I am the tallest of all.
  I am stronger than any of you.
  I have two servants and protectors at my left and two at my right.
  I tap the table and people listen.
  I knock on the door and people come.
  And when I stand alone, I threaten, bully, insult and shame.”

The ring finger smugly said, “Yes, but I’m more important than any of you.
  I am the richest.
  I am surrounded by precious metals and gems. 
  The poor beg for a sliver of me.
  The rich can’t get enough of me.
  I can make them happy; I can destroy them.

  I can buy sin or charity; it makes no difference to me.

  I can break friendships and marriages; I feel no guilt.
  I can make people do things they will forever regret; the disgrace is theirs.

  When I stand up everyone adores me."

The little finger quietly said, “I am the weakest of us all.
  I am the shortest by far.

  I have no authority.
  Any of you can crush me.
  I make no decisions.
  No one listens when I tell them to go this way or that.
  No one protects me.
  I am the laughingstock, a symbol of weakness.

  I am poor and rejected.

“But when I stand to pray, I stand closest to God.

  He is my authority, my wisdom, my strength, my protector and my wealth.”
 

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As the LORD might say to the prophet Jeremiah,*

      “The LORD says to the thumb, “Don’t boast of your authority.”
      To the index finger he says, “Don’t boast of your wisdom.”
      To the middle finger he says, “Don’t boast of your great strength.”
      And to the ring finger he says, “Don’t boast of your riches.”

But to the little finger he says,

     “Boast about this, that you know Me, the LORD,

     and that you trust me and know that I am kind and just,

     and that I always do what is right.

     These things please Me.”

Dear friend, you may feel like you are small and insignificant.
  You don’t have authority, wisdom, strength or wealth.
  Others despise you as weak and oppressed.

      But you stand closest to God.

            And when you stand close to God, you are greater than all of them.

 

* Jeremiah 9:23-24