AT THE WATER’S EDGE:

As we ring in the New Year, I want to reflect a bit on this past year. In 2023, I didn’t make a New Year’s resolution, but I did pick a Bible verse that I put next to my bed so that it could be a reminder for me throughout the year. It was from Zechariah 4:10, “Who dares despise the day of small things…”

I don’t even recall when or in what context I came across this passage, but the words really struck a chord with me. These words were spoken in a vision that Zechariah had in the time when the temple in Jerusalem was being rebuilt. There were those who mocked and ridiculed the rebuilding, who had tried to stop the building and who didn’t think it would ever be completed. But great works start with small steps. And those small things lay the foundation for something greater — in this case very literally.

In my life that looked like all of the day to day little things that are involved with caring for young (still not yet potty trained) children. It looked like laundry. Lots of laundry. It looked like cooking and dishes and cleaning up spills and messes. It looked like calming children down, learning to calm my own self down and figuring out how to navigate the daily battles of getting dressed and brushing teeth. It looked like more research on how to care for kids from hard places. It looked like trial and error, rupture and repair, mistakes and making things right. It looked like teaching, modeling, practicing the same life skills over and over and over again. And you start to wonder if you’re making any progress. Then I look to my nightstand and remember: we are building the foundation.

My kids may not be at a developmental stage where they can access all the skills that we are working on but as they continue to grow and develop we are building a strong foundation and a whole slew of tools and resources that they will someday be able to use to help them through challenging situations. They are learning the importance of words, integrity, responsibility, respect, kindness, generosity and most importantly the love of God and the gift of grace through Jesus. These days of little things matter so much. Without a firm foundation, they will fall. The time is now to build those skills, values and a faith that will last a lifetime.

As always, I love what Matthew Henry has to say about this passage in his commentary:

“Note, In God’s work the day of small things is not to be despised. Though the instruments be weak and unlikely, God often chooses such, by them to bring about great things. As a great mountain becomes a plain before him when he pleases, so a little stone, cut out of a mountain without hands, comes to fill the earth, Dan. 2:35. Though the beginnings be small, God can make the latter end greatly to increase; a grain of mustard-seed may become a great tree. Let not the dawning light be despised, for it will shine more and more to the perfect day. The day of small things is the day of precious things, and will be the day of great things.”

I pray that I would not lose sight of the fact that these days are precious and that these small things matter. And I challenge you to think about what small, perhaps even tedious things are a part of your daily life right now — and what might God be trying to build from that? Let us not despise these days, but rather rejoice in them, for God will see His good works through to completion (Philippians 1:6).

Now that it’s a New Year, I will soon have a new verse to focus on and perhaps I’ll share that here soon, too.

But for now… May blessings and joy abound for you in 2024. Happy New Year!