By Lynna Clark
Chapter 3 of Nehemiah starts the building program. Notice in verse one, the spiritual leadership started the construction. None of this standing around in coat and tie, symbolic hardhats perched on lofty heads, with beribboned shovels. These guys threw down! Somebody had some organizational skills to get this many different personalities working together! Scripture lists all kinds of folk who stood shoulder to shoulder in this enormous project. The Lord names family after family, their children, their occupations, their skills. One guy was a perfume maker. [Neh. 3:8] I bet he had some blisters! But it was probably the best pain he ever felt. Chapter 3:12 names a man and his daughters who built a section. We have three grown daughters. They are the Godliest, strongest women I know. Anytime the family has a building project, they are not home making muffins. They are right there, in the mud and the muck working as hard as they can. It’s good to get the family involved in something bigger than self!
Back to Nehemiah chapter 3: Did you notice that God gives details down to the bolts in the gates? He’s like that, this God of ours. He loves details. Someone has wisely observed that the closer you look at things made by man, the more flaws you see. But the closer you examine the things made by God, the more beauty and detail will be discovered. A flower is pretty in a field. But under a microscope, the Designer is obviously brilliant. God is a fan of details like bolts, and whispered prayers, and kind words, and hard work, even if no one else notices. This God of ours warns often of the destruction pride can bring. But He loves servants so much, He washed some pretty nasty feet just to illustrate that no one is too important to get their hands dirty. He notices stuff no one else pays attention to, like the widow’s penny, and the short guy in the tree, and me, and you.
When you greet folks at church…when you sit by a stranger and ask them how they are, and listen…. When you pray for them… When you open your Bible for even a minute, and listen. …When you breathe a prayer over an email about someone hurting…
Details. Little things. Dedicate each day, each moment for His glory. Start today with a prayer that your service, your life, your work, be an offering of praise to Him. Then throughout the day, take advice from Hebrews 13:15 which says, “With Jesus’ help, let us continually offer our sacrifice of praise to God by proclaiming the glory of His Name.”
More: Psalm 8
