Drive through almost any district in Jamaica and you will see them: houses with steel rods sticking up from the top of the walls, waiting for another storey that has not come yet. Some have been waiting for a year. Some for fifteen. Some have families living on the ground floor, washing hanging on a line tied to the rebar. Some are empty shells with bush growing in the window openings.
Every one of those houses represents a hope. And for many of the families who own them, the rusting steel has become a quiet daily reminder of what they have not yet been able to finish.
A temple left half-built
The prophet Zechariah spoke to people living next to an unfinished building. After the exile, a group had returned to Jerusalem and laid the foundation of a new temple. Then opposition came, money ran short, and the work stopped for years. The foundation sat there, a reminder of a project begun with joy and abandoned in discouragement.
Into that situation God sent a message to Zerubbabel, the governor responsible for the building: “‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ says the Lord of hosts” (Zechariah 4:6, NKJV).
A few verses later comes a promise and a question. The hands of Zerubbabel had laid the foundation, and his hands would also finish it. “For who has despised the day of small things?” (Zechariah 4:9-10, NKJV).
Might, power and the building budget
“Might” and “power” in Zechariah’s day meant armies, wealth and political influence, the things that normally get big projects done. The returned exiles had very little of any of them. God’s message was not that resources do not matter, but that they are not ultimately what completes His work.
For a family with a half-built house, this is both comforting and challenging. Comforting, because the size of your bank balance is not the final word on your future. Challenging, because it asks us to depend on God rather than simply waiting for the next promotion, the next remittance, the next partner draw.
It does not mean we stop working or planning. Zerubbabel’s hands still had to lay stones. Nehemiah, rebuilding the walls of the same city a little later, organised, budgeted and set guards. Faith and hard work belong together. But the Spirit of God is what gives the work its meaning and carries it through.
The day of small things
The older people who remembered the first temple wept when they saw how modest the new foundation was (Ezra 3:12). It must have looked like a poor substitute. Zechariah’s question pushes back gently: who are you to despise small beginnings?
That question can be asked of the unfinished house too. The ground floor you live in, with its plywood partitions and exposed blocks, is not nothing. It is a roof over your children. The foundation poured years ago, still waiting for walls, represents real sacrifice. The small monthly amount you put aside for materials is a seed.
Some practical ways to honour the day of small things:
- Make the finished part comfortable. Paint the rooms you live in. Hang curtains. It is fine to enjoy a partial house.
- Protect what is built. Cap exposed rebar with concrete or covers to limit rust, and keep the roof sound. Ask your contractor what is worth doing now.
- Plan the next small step, not the whole building. One room, one window, one section of wall.
- Avoid desperate borrowing to finish quickly. Slow and paid for may be wiser than fast and in debt.
- Pray over the unfinished part. Literally, if you like: stand where the upper floor will be and give it to God.
Finished in His time
The temple was eventually completed. It was not as grand as the first one, and it took longer than anyone had hoped. But it was finished, and it stood for centuries.
Not every house with rebar on the roof will get its second storey. Plans change, families move, needs shift. But the God who spoke to Zerubbabel still does not despise small beginnings, and He still finishes what He starts in His people’s lives, whether or not the building ends up looking like the original drawing.
For reflection
- What “unfinished building” in my life, literal or not, have I started to despise?
- What is one small, faithful step I can take towards it this month?
A prayer: Lord, You see the steel on the roof and the rooms not yet built. Forgive me for despising small beginnings. Teach me to work faithfully, spend wisely and trust that what is done by Your Spirit will stand. Amen.
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