Small is beautiful
"Does anyone dare despise this day of small beginnings? They’ll change their tune when they see Zerubbabel setting the last stone in place!" ~ Zechariah 4:10 (MSG)
Another story. “God’s kingdom is like a pine nut that a farmer plants. It is quite small as seeds go, but in the course of years it grows into a huge pine tree, and eagles build nests in it.” ~ Matthew 13:31-32 (MSG)
KEY IDEA:
God starts small.
PRAYER:
Great and glorious God, it is so tempting to discount the small things in life and to assume that you only work through what is grand and spectacular. That is so contrary to how you do things. Help me to take the small, simple, and unassuming events as signs of your activity. Help me to get behind what you're doing. I'm going to refocus so that I look for your hand in the small things of life. Amen.
TRANSLATIONS
ABP = Authorized Boydston Paraphrase — my own freestyle biblical adaptation — somewhere between paraphrase, commentary, and sermon
CEB = Common English Bible (©2011, the Common English Bible)
CEV = Contemporary English Version (©1995, American Bible Society)
MSG = The Message (©1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson)
NIRV = New International Reader's Version (©1996, 1998, Biblica)
NIV = New International Version (©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011, Biblica)
NLT = New Living Translation (©1996, 2004, 2007, 2013, Tyndale House Foundation)
