When I woke up this morning, I had a greater appreciation for the smaller things of life. The pandemic has hopefully caused all of us to have a greater appreciation for small things and small blessings. During a season of extreme fuel prices, we have appreciated the smaller car which uses less fuel. What we must remember also is that small things in our lives in many cases have grown to bigger blessings. 

I was recently reading Zechariah chapter 4 and came across these words, “The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house; his hands shall also finish it; and thou shalt know the Lord of hosts hath sent me unto you; For who hath despised the day of small things? For they shall rejoice, and see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel with those seven; they are the eyes of the Lord, which run to and from through the whole earth.”      

Zechariah speaks of the day of small things in this text. The temple of God has been destroyed, and Zerubbabel has the responsibility of rebuilding the temple as the Israelites come out of exile. The area has been sitting empty in rubbish for about 20 years. When Zerubbabel starts and works quickly to complete the temple’s foundation, some of the Jews despised the work that had been done because the foundation is not as large as that of the former temple built by Solomon. Even the surrounding nations despised the Jews and fought against rebuilding the temple. 

For 16 years the Jews were reminded of their insignificance, weakness, smallness, etc. They despised the day of small things, but they had forgotten that there was a big God whose hand was in the project. It was made clear in verses 6-7 that God’s strength will be the source for the completion of the temple. “This is what the Lord says to Zerubbabel: not by might nor by power, but by the Spirit, says the Lord of hosts.” It is only through God’s Spirit that what we accomplish is attributed to or should be to Him.  The exiles are tired, poor, weak, but they must remember as we should also that God is always with us and it is by His strength.   

I believe the words of Spurgeon are profound, “God accepts your little works if they are done in faith in his dear Son. God will give success to your little works: God will educate you by your little works to do greater works; and your little works may call out others who shall do greater works by far than ever you shall be able to accomplish.”  

Think about it for a moment; Too often, we think our blessings come only in big packages. If we were to think about life and how most of what we have accomplished started small, there might be a greater appreciation for small things given to us by God. Our paycheck was small when we started working our first jobs, but prayerfully it has grown over the years.

Sometimes we prefer going to big schools with fancy names so that we might give the impression that we are more intelligent than those who attended a smaller university. Sometimes I believe people gravitate to big churches so that it might look as if they are more important or they are better Christians (No offense intended) than others. Sometimes we become so arrogant that we do not want to associate with unimportant people or small people because we might look unimportant. We want fancy cars so that we might look important, but be careful because it could lead to pride. 

The pandemic has caused us to reflect on how things were before, but what we must appreciate and rejoice in what we have now. What we have now may not be as big as it was before, but God is still the source of our everything. 

Sometimes we waste a lot of our lives trying to build big houses, careers, or a reputation so that we might look big to others. But we must remember that God uses little things also for the fulfilment of his plan.  

It is true that because we start small, it does not mean that we stay small, but we must remember whose strength got us to where we are in life. Think about a little acorn that becomes a mighty oak tree. Think about the widow who had a small amount of food, but she fed her family and the man of God. Another widow gave only two mites, and Jesus blessed her. Five loaves of bread and two fish fed a multitude.

The point in this message is that we are not to despise the days of small things, for they may be the days of God preparing and shaping us for brighter and bigger things.

In our churches, those with small jobs are just as important as those with more important jobs, for the school engineer is just as important as anyone else.

Not a sermon, just my thoughts!

Robert Earl Slade, Pastor