Everything in the garden starts small. A seed, a spore, a cutting… all tiny in the beginning. Some grow into daisies, others into oaks. One of first lessons in the garden is to practice patience.
The principle holds true in our Christian faith as well. Take a seed… and wait for God to act.
“Do not despise these small beginnings, for the LORD rejoices to see the work begin… “ proclaimed the Prophet of the Lord. (Zechariah 4:10) After the ruination of the Temple, at last a new one was taking shape. All the old people remembered the glory of the Great Temple- and cried over the inadequacy of the new. Zechariah has to help them see that God is doing a NEW thing: and with hindsight and through revelation, we know the arrival of Jesus made the Temple obsolete. The Son of God, who “did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,” even became small to save us (Philippians 2:6–8).
Impatient humans love to rush, frantic activity replacing reasoned strategies. We plant a new church- but it takes time, prayer, and the honest sweat of our brow to see it off the drawing board. We pray an “urgent” request, and before we’ve said “Amen” we try to solve it on our own. The latest “fool-proof plan” to make our lives perfect- turns out a disappointment.
Yet all the while, God is working out His purpose and the final outcome will be victorious glory (despite our desire for INSTANT results.) Small things, tiny seeds, will grow because God plants those seeds of vision in us. “Success” is always dependent on the Spirit’s breath of life.
“Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts” (Zechariah 4:6).
The Reflectionary 