Premies are small.  Growth is slow. We make tiny, incremental changes in their ventilator settings or feeding volumes.  Some babies are so premature, and/or have such complex medical problems, that trying to fix one small issue can lead to unwelcome challenges in other areas. It’s easy to become daunted, discouraged and discontented at how little difference we seem to be making for our patients and their families. 

Even if you’re not hanging around a NICU, life in general feels daunting. Especially right now.  The world is a big mess.  We are so limited. This morning I was listening to a friend describing feeling as though all she was doing was “small.”  If we can’t actually change the world, or, better yet, fix it, can’t we at least do or say something that will make it sit up and take notice?  (I admit that I grew up believing that to “glorify God”must mean to do big, noticeable, worthy things.)

Yet when I heard my friend use the term “small things” - what came to mind was the phrase “despise not the day of small things.” I wasn’t exactly sure where in the Bible it came from (besides that it was in one of the prophets), or even if I had remembered it correctly.  So I looked it up.

 Zechariah 4:10 (ESV) says that “whoever has despised the day of small things shall rejoice, and shall see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel.” (The NLT does in fact say “Do not despise these small beginnings.”) 

Here’s the context: this is the same chapter in which, a few verses earlier, the LORD says to Zerubbabel through Zechariah: “Not by power, or by might, but by My Spirit”. It’s hard to keep the Z names straight, but this particular Zechariah, a priest and prophet, was part of a group that returned to Jerusalem from Babylon, in about 538 BC, led by Zerubbabel, a descendant of King David.  The returnees had laid the foundation of the temple pretty quickly but further building hadn’t progressed over the following two decades due to opposition.  The book of Zechariah comes at this point: the returnees, understandably discouraged that things weren’t progressing as expected, are discontentedly despising their “day of small things” and feeling that God is distant.  But here He reassures His people that Zerubbabel will finish rebuilding the temple. The larger book of Zechariah is in fact a string of prophecies reminding Israel that not only is He still with them in the “small things,” He is preparing a glorious future in which He will restore David’s line, give peace to His treasured people, and bless the nations through them.   Here again, as throughout the Old Testament, Jesus is the fulfillment of the prophecies: “all the promises of God find their YES in Him” (II Cor 1:20).

Thanks to Jesus, our Immanuel, whatever small thing we are doing, God is with us.  It is our Father’s good pleasure to give us the Kingdom - and it does start out small as a mustard seed. His power is made perfect in our weakness.  It is our privilege to participate in His renewal and restoration, holding onto Him, doing our “small, sensible, human things” in His great love. *

(*Paraphrasing a paraphrase of Mother Teresa, and adding a few of CS Lewis’ words. See links.)