Articles
Big Things, Small Town
I had the pleasure of preaching for a church in Indiana last week. Because the gospel meeting coincided with the kids’ spring break, we decided to go together and make a trip out of it. On our way home we decided to make a pitstop in one of the most remarkable little towns I’ve ever seen.
Casey, Illinois.
Now, if you’re not familiar with it, that’s not a surprise. It’s small. I mean, really small. Little more than a dot on a map that could easily be overlooked on a long road trip if not for a handful of oddities. A long list of the “World’s Largest...” items and the town’s motto (“Big Things. Small Town”) make for a very intriguing visit. The largest rocking chair. The largest seesaw. The largest pencil. The largest car key. The largest mailbox (and it is, in fact, a working mailbox). The largest knitting needles. The largest jigsaw puzzle. And it goes on and on!
I guess I couldn’t help but be reminded of the scripture: “For who has despised the day of small things?” (Zechariah 4:10). In the context, the prophet is speaking to the exiles who have returned from captivity in Babylon. After inititally being enthusiastic in their efforts to rebuild the temple, they lost momentum and abandoned the project. Perhaps this discouragement partly arose from the fact that the new temple would not be as big or glorious as Solomon’s. Perhaps it had to do with feeling like they were such a small group of Jews outnumbered by hostile neighbors. Perhaps they just weren’t convinced that God could accomplish big things with such meager resources.
But it’s often the smallest things that reveal the biggest truths!
After all, the smallest embers can rekindle a roaring campfire. God can take small, unimportant people like John the baptist, Elisha, Amos, Gideon, etc. and mold them into heroes of faith. Churches don’t have to be big in numbers to have oversized influence on their communities. Small acts of kindness, mercy, or charity can have eternal consequences (see the way Jesus talks about such acts of kindness in Matthew 25:34ff). Just a few words, spoken with conviction, can make a bigger difference than all the flowery, fluffy speeches of fools (Proverbs 15:23, Ecclesiastes 10:12-14).
Look no further than Jesus Himself to see the way great things often come in humble packaging (Galatians 4:4, Philippians 2:6-11).
