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Who Has Despised The Day of Small Things

By Dean Kelly

 

Zechariah 4:10, “For who has despised the day of small things?… ”

I saw two little sisters heading into a creek with their grandmother’s watchful eye nearby. There was another little girl in the creek.

The three girls struck up an immediate friendship. The other little girl’s father was out in the creek with them. He listened to those little girls when they spoke to him of their little girl thoughts, often grinning, sometimes chuckling, but always making them feel like they were important and worthy of his listening: a small thing.

I saw a preteen rush over to pick up something that an elderly man had dropped. With a smile he handed it back to him. The man expressed his sincere appreciation to him: a small thing.

Have you ever noticed that when Jesus, in Matthew 25, speaks of the judgment that the things which condemn or justify are all small things: feeding, giving water, taking in a stranger, clothing and visiting. He emphasized that the small things were important. Each thing is a small thing.

We tend to honor those who do big things, and honor is due to them. But Jesus notices the small things. We tend to want to do the earth-shattering things. But we change the world by doing the little things, one act at a time.

We can save a life with a kind word. Marriages work, not on the grand gestures, but on the small things.

What Zechariah, in our text, is talking about is the foundation to the new temple. Ezra records the reaction of the old men who had seen the first temple in Ezra 3:12. They cried because they were despising the day of small things instead of realizing the glory that could come in the new temple.

I hope your day is full of the small things, the kindnesses and relationships that are small things but bring about much larger results. The day of the small things is the way of the cross. Let’s meet there.

Dean Kelly is minister at Highland Home Church of Christ.