Small

I like words.  I like big ones, interesting ones, ones that so precisely mean what I want to get across; delightful accuracy that paints just the right picture.

However, my favorites are the small ones: "yet" & "but" are tiny of form while still casting a big shadow:

"All of us once lived among them in the passions of our flesh, following the desires of flesh and senses, and we were by nature children of wrath, like everyone else.

But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ - by grace you have been saved."  (Ephesians 2:3-5 NRSV).

"Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls,

yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior.  The Sovereign Lord is my strength."  (Hakakkuk 3:18-19 NIV).

True, the picture is not the same without the bigger words.  They are heavier and anchor the passage:  "children of wrath;" "rich in mercy;" "dead in trespasses;" "God my Savior;" "Sovereign Lord."

Yet the source of impact is much smaller.  Such a brief puff of air in the lungs, and it arrives.  It's seems to rest so lightly.

But it's the tipping point, it changes everything.

"But God..."

"Yet I will..."