The day of small things
Rebuilding the temple under Zerubbabel
The returned exiles were rebuilding the temple, and the new foundation was so modest that the old men who remembered Solomon's glory wept at how small it looked. Discouragement settled over the work. Into that, the word of the LORD came through Zechariah with a piercing question: Who has despised the day of small things?
The small beginning was not a thing to be ashamed of. It was the seed of something God himself would bring to completion. Despising it would have meant abandoning the very work God was blessing.
“Who despises the day of small things?”
— The word of the LORD, through Zechariah — Zechariah 4:10 (WEB)
Do not despise the day of small beginnings. The modest start can be the very seed God intends to grow; measure it by his purpose, not its present size.
“The Kingdom of Heaven is like a grain of mustard seed... which indeed is smaller than all seeds. But when it is grown, it is greater than the herbs and becomes a tree.”
The builders nearly gave up because the beginning looked unimpressive next to past glory. A leader formed here refuses to measure the seed against the imagined harvest, trusting God with small starts. He neither inflates the small thing nor despises it; he tends it faithfully. The inner work is valuing what God is growing, however small it looks now.
Honor and protect small, early-stage work rather than starving it of attention because it is not yet impressive. Resist the comparison that measures your modest beginning against someone else's mature harvest. Celebrate faithful small steps so people do not lose heart in the unglamorous middle. Steward seeds, not just harvests.
Leaders chase scale and quickly despise the small, the slow, and the early, mistaking modest size for insignificance. The blind spot is abandoning or neglecting the very beginnings God is quietly blessing because they do not yet look like much.
Identify one small beginning you have been tempted to despise or neglect. This week, deliberately invest in it as a seed — give it real attention, and resist comparing it to someone else's harvest.
Leaders are prone to despise small beginnings — small numbers, small budgets, small results — measuring the seed against the imagined harvest and concluding it is not worth the effort. God measures differently.
What small beginning are you tempted to despise right now — and what if it is precisely the seed God intends to grow?