Small Beginnings

“For who hath despised the day of small things?” — Zechariah 4:10 (KJV)

The second picture in Sibbes’s verse is smoking flax: a lamp wick with just a little light and lots of smoke. Sibbes says that is what faith often looks like at the start.

“Nothing so little as grace at first, and nothing more glorious afterward.”

Many young Christians get discouraged because their faith feels tiny. You compare yourself to someone who prays for an hour or knows the Bible inside out, and you think, “I’m not a real Christian.” Sibbes says: don’t judge by size. Everything great starts small.

He gives examples from nature. A mighty oak grows from an acorn. A tiny seed contains the whole plant, “both bulk and branches, bud and fruit.” Mushrooms spring up overnight and vanish just as fast, but the most valuable things take longest to grow. People take years to grow up. So does faith.

Then he says something very kind about how Jesus sees you:

“Christ valueth us by what we shall be, and by that we are elected unto.”

And he adds a picture: we call a little plant a tree, because it is growing up to be one.

When you look at a seedling in a pot, you might call it an oak tree, because that is what it is becoming. Jesus looks at you the same way. He doesn’t only see where you are now. He sees who you are becoming, and he is committed to getting you there.

Sibbes is careful, though. He doesn’t want us to be lazy about growing. He says we should look at our small beginnings to make us keep pressing on and to keep us humble. But if we are discouraged, we should look at ourselves as Christ looks at us.

The verse from Zechariah at the top of this chapter was spoken to people rebuilding God’s temple after it had been destroyed. The new building looked pathetic compared to the old one, and some people sneered. God said: don’t despise small beginnings. He was going to finish what he had started.

Your faith might be small. That is fine. It is real, and it is growing.

One thing to do this week: plant a seed this week, in a pot or a garden, or just look closely at a young plant. Every time you see it, remember Sibbes’s picture: we call a little plant a tree because it is growing up to be one. Thank God that he sees what you are becoming.