Last Saturday we watched our youngest grandson and his Junior Novice team play football. This was a team of boys 7-8 years old. They were precious. They looked like bobble-head dolls with helmets bigger than they were. Our son was coaching. No score was kept, except by the parents in the stands. There was no kick-off or extra points and each team had two 12-minute quarters on offense and defense. It may have looked like a free for all, but these little guys had designed plays to run and they ran them with all they had in them.
As I watched these little boys play I thought of the verse in Zechariah 4. “Who despises the day of small things?”
Lots of things start off small. It seems like only yesterday the grandson we watched on Friday play on his high school junior varsity team was one of these little ones with the big helmets, but he’s not so small anymore. The skills and determination that he learned as a 7-year-old benefit him now.
It is often that way with the things of God. In God’s work, the day of small things is not to be despised. Though the ones God uses might be weak and unlikely, God often chooses them to bring about great things. Zechariah was to build a temple, but it would not equal the great temple of Solomon and the people despised its small foundation. We need to remember, however, that though beginnings are small, God can make the latter end great.
It is like Jesus said, the smallest of seeds, the mustard seed, may become a great tree where even the birds can rest on its branches. (Luke 13:19)
