The God of Small Beginnings

UV 757/10,000 The God of Small Beginnings Who despises the day of small things? Men will rejoice when they see the plumbline in the hand of Zerubbabel. “(These seven are the eyes of the Lord, which range throughout the earth) Zechariah 4 v 10 The Lord does not wait for us to finish a great work before He applauds us. He notices and delights in even our small beginnings, the efforts we make in the course of our daily grind to build a temple for Him in our lives. Zerubbabel , a descendant of the royal line of King David, is a symbol of a person in authority who acted with faith. He is also a symbol of those who stand for the Lord in their workplaces. When He sees that we apply His Word in our daily work life like Zerubbabel did to see if we are building our lives in plumb with His instructions, He honours all our efforts with success. He does not wait till we reach the finishing line to bless us for our faithfulness in little things. Just as doting parents are delighted at the first toddling steps and first babbling words of their child, our Father is delighted in our little successes as well as our little failures. The Lord encourages us by saying, “ keep doing what you can, you will end up doing what you cannot.” He affirms that all great things have small beginnings. He cherishes every attempt we make to fulfil His will for our lives. Just as a bricklayer checks the wall with a plumbline after building a small segment of the larger wall, every day we need to check the segment of the wall we are engaged in building for the Kingdom of God. People may act as if they are mocking us at the beginning of our endeavour and we can expect little support or encouragement from them for unlike God they do not see the big picture of the culmination of our life’s work. But once, we make some progress in alignment with God’s Will and His Word, they too will rejoice and join the celebration. God delights in the thoughts of our minds and in the accompanying emotions, desires and decisions of our heart. He knows that thoughts eventually become things. He is more delighted not in the outcome of our efforts but the process through which we go in order to use the talents, abilities and opportunities He has brought our way. Faithfulness implies that we do not complain of what we do not have but instead we learn to use fully what we have. When Jesus asked the disciples, how much food they had at hand, the disciples initially despised the fact that they had in all only the five loaves and two fish that a little boy had in his little basket. But at the end of the day, they had twelve basketfuls of leftovers of bread and fish. It is not the devil who is in the details. It is the Lord who is in the details. “The seven eyes” are a metaphor for His complete provision and total protection to those who do small acts with great love. One eye can capture the entire expanse of a continent or an oceon and penetrate the heart of a man. It is also a symbol that faith in the Lord and His Word is a force multiplier. When we begin anything in a small way with great faith, the Lord will complete it. He lends His omnipotence, omniscience and omnipresence to us. He promises to fulfil the good work that He began in our lives. His ever watchful eyes are always searching to and fro across the globe for anyone whose heart is fully committed to Him so that He will show Himself strong on their behalf. He will provide His Word as the plumbline and straighten their lives. Ruth declared her total commitment to the God of Israel and proved it by the small act of sticking to her mother in law, Naomi like a leech. The Lord provided the one who was despised as a hapless and helpless woman a faithful husband in Boaz and made her the ancestor of both King David and the King of Kings Jesus. The small lesson learnt is that we need to stick to the Lord like a leech. We need to suck in the Word too like a leech all day. Prateep V Philip