St. Anthony of Padua Chapel, Festina, Iowa
Zechariah 4:10 NLT
Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin, to see the plumb line in Zerubbabel’s hand.
The little town of Festina in Northeast Iowa, has a big claim to fame – even though it is small. St. Anthony of Padua Chapel is known as the World’s Smallest Church. In 1991, Guinness Book of World’s records gave the official title to the Cross Island Chapel in New York, built in 1989. Still, local Iowans would be hard pressed to change their minds after having the title since 1885. With a 12 x 16 interior, St. Anthony’s seats eight people in four full size pews. It features a 30 foot steeple and a standard size door. But why it was constructed is what makes this church truly special. According to the Winneshiek County Historical Society, “The church was constructed to fulfill a vow made by Johann Gaertner’s mother, who promised God she would build Him a chapel if her soldier son survived Napoleon’s Russian campaign. The boy returned home unharmed, and the chapel was built of locally quarried stone in 1885.”
Now, Zechariah lived about 2,400 years before Johann Gaertner was born. The Israelites had been in exile in Babylon and they were embarking on a season of rebuilding. Zerubbabel had a plumb line in his hand, a line that was suspended with a weighted and pointed “bob” at the end. Our friend Bob Vila describes it like this, “The plumb bob or plumb line employs the law of gravity to establish what is “plumb” (that is, what is exactly vertical, or true). You don’t have to be a physics whiz to understand that a string suspended with a weight at the bottom will be both vertical and perpendicular to any level plane through which it passes. In a sense, the plumb bob is the vertical equivalent of the line level.” Rebuilding the entire Temple of Jerusalem was not small job! It was critical to do painstakingly quality work if it were to withstand the ravages of time.
But whether you are building the World’s Smallest Church or the entire Temple of Jerusalem, it all started with the laying of the very first stone. One small stone can make or break the entire construction project so don’t ever feel discouraged by the size or scope of the purpose God has given you. No work done for God is ever insignificant! Consult the plumb line of God and if you are plumb, vertical and true, with God’s word then what you are doing is a magnificent part of a plan far greater than you can ever imagine! God rejoices when we listen, follow His word, work, and fulfill a purpose He set in place long before we knew it. What may seem small to the world might just be the first drop in a vast ocean, first grain of sand in a mighty desert, the cornerstone of a beautiful temple, or the first stitch in the robes for the King.
