Small Things
“Who despises the day of small things?” Zechariah 4:10 (NIV)
Small things are often very important. Our Bible verse asks a question: “Who despises the day of small things?” It’s from the book of Zechariah. He was a prophet God raised up to encourage the Israelites to rebuild the temple which had been destroyed by their enemies. They had rebuilt the foundation, and then stopped. The Lord wanted them to finish the job.
To some of the people, what just one person could accomplish must have seemed small. They had to lay stone upon stone, one at a time. The Temple was very large; it had huge columns, and altars. It must have seemed like a huge task. How much could one person do, building by hand? And so, the people lost heart, and for a while ignored building God’s house.
God wanted them to show diligence and endurance and complete the work. No matter what each person did to help, it was important to the Lord, even if it seemed like a small task to them.
Sometimes we look at small things as being rather insignificant. But we need to look at them from God’s perspective. The small part we play in God’s kingdom is very important. We see just that small part, but the Lord knows the whole plan.
Think of some small things that are very important: a pill, for example. Pills are very small but antibiotics and other pills save lives. How about things we do to help at home? Putting things back where they belong is a small task but very important.
Mothers do many “small” things – changing a diaper, for example. What if no one changed the baby’s diaper? Or, what if Dad didn’t buy batteries for the flashlight and when the power went out, you couldn’t see?
The Israelites finally did rebuild the Temple. Though each person may have played a small part, together they built God’s house and accomplished a large task.
It’s the same in our families. There are many small things we do, but together we can get the job done. Each person’s role is significant.
We should never despise – or look down on - small things, whether it’s small tasks we do, or small things we own.
In God’s eyes, small things are important and He wants us to be faithful first in small things.
Copyright, 2007, Laurie Latour.
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