Finding Joy in Smallness: Why God Rejoices in Small Beginnings

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“Do not despise these small beginnings for the LORD rejoices to see the work begin…”  (Zechariah 4:10, NLT).

Why is smallness so despised? According to one author, we live in a world that loves big things (Ajao, 2025). When we are small children, we just want to be big instead of enjoying the opportunity to be small. It is only the small children who can crawl in and out of jungle gyms and those playsets in McDonald’s. Ever try to retrieve a child who did not want to leave on their own? I bet you wished you were smaller then.

For some reason, we always want to be big and all grown up. But then, as we get older, we wish we could slow down the clock and be younger again. Small businesses dream of the day they can be big businesses, rising to the heights from smallness — like the garage start-ups Hewlett Packard, Mattel, the Walt Disney Company, and Wham-O (Audia and Rider, 2005).

This is a story about enjoying each and every day and the small things each day provides. There’s no sense in rushing ahead to that vacation we will take in July. Why not enjoy the little things God brings into our lives today?

I remember with great joy starting out small when it was just my wife and me, as a newly married couple. Talk about smallness! We had very little — maybe two pennies to rub together, as they say. We borrowed furniture from anyone we could and pulled items from the trash that we could fix up, paint, or refinish. We lived in a basement apartment with no windows except the light coming in from the front door. I called that place “the womb,” because it reminded me very much of the birthing process — with the child coming out of darkness into the bright light of the delivery room. Those were some of our most precious times, as we depended on God and enjoyed each other’s company. I don’t look back and disdain the growth that occurred. It has been an incredible journey with my partner of 43 years, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything. We are back to the smallness now, having had our kids find their way out of the womb – literally – and into their own relationships in different parts of the country.

The Bible is filled with small beginnings. Although there was an incredible angel choir that overwhelmed the shepherds at the time (see Luke chapter 2), the birth of the tiny Baby who would be born “the king of the Jews” (Matthew 2:2) was a small beginning. The prayer for rain by the prophet Elijah after three years of drought had the prophet’s servant checking the horizon seven times to look for the rain clouds coming. Finally, as the servant looked toward the sea, he proclaimed, “Behold, a little cloud like a man’s hand is rising from the sea” (1 Kings 18:44). That small cloud in God’s hand became a thunderous rain (1 Kings 18:45).

There was a young shepherd boy who had great confidence that, in a small set of stones, he could defeat a giant! Such youthful audacity! But David had practiced defending his sheep from many predators in the past. He knew, with God‘s help, he could defeat anyone or stand up to any great challenge (1 Samuel 17:34-37). This is why David was known as a man after God’s own heart (Acts 13:22), not because of his great victories, but because of his great faith in the God who takes small things and uses them for His glory. 

The emphasis here is that our heavenly Father often works within the humble, seemingly insignificant place, and allows us to depend on Him for growth. This way, God alone gets the glory, not man. It was a boy’s small lunch that allowed Jesus to demonstrate God‘s incredible majesty and power, using that small meal to feed thousands (John 6:8-9). Was the moral of the story that, through a small thing like a boy’s lunch, God would easily satisfy people’s needs? Certainly, but the impact of that miracle went even further. When Jesus confronted His followers during this same time about eating the True Bread come down from heaven (John 6:35); and how they must eat the Living Bread, not the bread their fathers ate (John 6:52-59; 66), suddenly the large crowd left Him. Only the small, but faithful, group of disciples remained — and look how this small group changed the world!

The verse cited at the beginning of this article highlights Israel’s return from their Babylonian captivity and the encouragement of God’s prophet Zechariah to the returning leaders (Ortlund, 2013). Twenty years after their return from exile, God’s people and their leaders were discouraged and overwhelmed at the task before them, to rebuild the temple, representing the Lord’s presence among His people. God’s prophet Zechariah encouraged Israel’s leaders that their efforts would bear fruit as they proceeded in this great task and trusted in their heavenly Father (Ortlund, 2013).

God reassured His people through the word of His prophet that the reconstruction of their temple would be completed. But beyond this reconstruction, God was asking His people to recommit themselves to a covenant relationship with Him (Zechariah 1:3). Scripture reassures us today of this same promise, but only if we will commit ourselves to a similar covenant relationship (Matthew 26:28).

Author Srinivas Rao (2019) says we undervalue the effort of starting small and exult in the idea of our grand ambitions. He insists we do this because of the influence of an ambitious cultural expectation where size is deified. We hear in graduation speeches and ambitious aspirations that we can change the world, and bigger is better. When was the last time, when offered several choices, you chose to start small, work your way up, and did not ask to “supersize” your decision? Rao suggests that we do ourselves a great disservice in expecting we might only achieve great things. It is such an overwhelming task to grow from small to great, and we often are fearful in taking the first steps into this vision, which can repress our ambitions within this dichotomy (Rao, 2019). 

Isn’t that the point of small beginnings? It is not how crafty or innovative we can be. It is whether or not this idea or inspiration is from God. If the inspiration is from God, then whether this thing becomes great or remains small, all the glory is due to the One Who inspired the start of it. That is why we should not despise the day of small beginnings but, instead, savor each moment as a gift to us from the Lord.

Small beginnings are hard, I know. Limited resources, late nights. One-fifth of small business owners work at least 60 hours a week (SmallBizGenius.net). Many small businesses do not make it — only 49% of small businesses survive five years or more (SmallBizGenius.net). But what is making it? Only 9% of all businesses generate sales over $1 million a year (Hughes, 2022). Many of them remain small, making just enough to pay employees, their bills, and make a small profit to reinvest.

But is being small such a bad thing? Small businesses are the backbone of our economy. There are 30.2 million small businesses in the US, and they make up 47.5% of the private workforce (SmallBizGenius.net). This is not a bad thing. You are providing a service to customers and feeding your family. You are providing employment to a handful of employees. You are purchasing materials from vendors and serving customers in a personal way. Those accomplishments can be much better than all the big headaches that come from big businesses.

Perhaps God would give us one “talent” — or three or five — based on our abilities (Matthew 25:15), entrust us with His property or His people, and call us to be faithful with what we have. Are we willing to trust Him in that day of small beginnings and “engage in business until He returns” (Luke 19:13 ESV)? The tendency when things go from small to great is for us to pat ourselves on the back and be thankful for what we were able to do (Miller and Ross, 1975). Much like the successful man who wanted to tear down his barns and build bigger barns (Luke 12:16-21), there are times that we congratulate ourselves or receive the praise from others because of our ingenuity and persistence.

Let it not be found on our lips that we get any glory in the big moments or in the small, but that we point the glory to the great God of heaven Who has given us life; Who has sustained us; Who in raising up this small beginning, and who is using it to draw people to Himself. May we rejoice in the stewardship that God has given to us and, also, be “faithful in the small matters” (Luke 16:10 GNT). That way, we can be entrusted with the bigger matters, should God allow. Whether in big or in small things, He is the one to whom the glory belongs! 

Sources:

Ajao, I. (2025, May 30). The Power of Starting Small (And Staying Consistent). LinkedIn [Web Blog]. Retrieved from https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/power-starting-small-staying-consistent-imisioluwa-ajao-w0vff/.

Audia, P. G., & Rider, C. I. (2005). A Garage and an Idea: What More Does an Entrepreneur Need? California Management Review, 48(1), 6-28. https://doi.org/10.2307/41166325 (Original work published 2005).

Hughes, K. (2022, December 6). Scaling to $1 million: What You Need to Do to Beat 91% of Businesses. Data taken from SmallBizGenius.net (https://www.smallbizgenius.net/by-the-numbers/small-business-statistics/).

Miller, D. T., & Ross, M. (1975). Self-serving biases in the attribution of causality: Fact or fiction? Psychological Bulletin, 82(2), 213–225. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0076486.

Ortlund, G. (2013, November 6). Don’t Despise the Day of Small Beginnings. Truth Unites [Web Blog]. Retrieved from https://truthunites.org/2013/11/06/dont-despise-the-day-of-small-beginnings/.

Rao, S. (2019, June 24). The Deceptive Power of Starting Small. Medium [Web Blog]. Retrieved from https://medium.com/the-mission/the-deceptive-power-of-starting-small-dd0fac2193d8.