Small Beginnings
I will remember the deeds of the LORD; yes, I will remember your miracles of long ago.
Psalm 77:11
Do you ever take time to reminisce? To look back at good times, sweet memories? Thinking of good times with family and friends can spark a desire to reconnect and even encourage us to soak in the blessings that we have currently. In God's Word, psalmists talk about the importance of memories. Remembering the blessings of the Lord can encourage us and add to our endurance in difficult seasons.
Take a minute and walk down a dirt road with me.
I grew up in rural Alabama. And not the type of place they talk about on the news when they say things like, "a small town of 50,000." I'm talking about the kind of place where maybe ten named communities sent their kids to one of the smallest schools in the state. Rural.
The church I grew up in was off a red dirt road in the corner of a couple of cotton fields. Sometimes my mama took me, but most of the time, it was my grandmother. Grandmama had what I have heard called "Hallelujah Hair" that stood way up off her head. She was a hallelujah woman, too: a woman of prayer. I remember her praying on her knees beside her bed, at the altar at church, at the sewing machine, over the sink, in the garden, and in the car.
In my earliest memories of the church, it was one little white building – a small, humble sanctuary with a raised platform for the pulpit and the piano. There was a thick velvet curtain that could be pulled along the front of the platform to separate the sanctuary for Sunday School classes. We kids met around the piano while the adults met on the benches. These were beautiful wooden benches, golden tongue-and-groove pine boards fitted together and varnished. Members of the congregation had met and built these to replace more roughly fashioned benches years before my time. I loved running my fingers over the turpentine pearls that dotted the backs and bottoms when the services ran long and I stretched out beside Grandmama or on the floor.
I can remember opening one eye to watch my grandmama pray.
On either side of the pulpit was a simple wooden altar made of dark stained two-by-fours where we gathered to pray at the beginning and end of each service. I can remember opening one eye to watch my grandmama pray. She prayed like she was trying to get someone to answer the door. She was determined. Sometimes her voice keened, high and sad. Sometimes, golden words came from her mouth – words I didn't understand, but I knew God did.
In the summer, big fans in cages would get out of balance and walk across the floor. Dust sparkled in the air, and sun shined through the windows. The nights smelled of cotton poison and sounded of cicadas and crickets -- the background to ardent sermons punctuated with shouts from the congregation. In the winter, space heaters glowed with ceramic smiles and smelled like flames.
Dinner on the grounds was outside, heaps of food placed on tables made of plywood boards balanced on wooden sawhorses. And there were outhouses. Two. One for men and one for women. I remember going only once. That was enough of an experience.
As the years passed, the church added a fellowship hall with indoor plumbing. They got padded benches and paneling. Things changed, as they always do, but the memories of the small, humble church are nestled in my mind.
Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin, to see the plumb line in Zerubbabel's hand.
Zechariah 4:10
My Christian life began in a small church, in a small community, in a small fashion. But the effect it still has on me many years later is vast. We moved along the way, and I attended other churches growing up. I have attended many more through college and adulthood. But that little church of my youth laid a foundation that I wouldn't trade.
What is God building in you that had a small beginning? It may be something that He is just now stirring in you. Is it a ministry? A business? An idea? A relationship with Him? Maybe you need to look back to another time and place. Did God plant ideas years ago? Maybe in another season of your life? If so, I encourage you to take time to dream, pray, and ask God about some small things you need to pay attention to. Don't overlook things that have small beginnings, humble starts. All God needs is for you to be willing to seek and follow Him. He can do the rest.
