Can we bring to birth a better day? We can begin as God does, with little things. When God would grow a tree, He plants a seed. When He would build a universe, He begins with the atom. When He would change the hearts of men, He sends a babe to a manger. We must begin with the commonplace things which lie to hand. It is essential to dream great dreams, but hope does not spring from dreams alone. Wedded to the dream must be the act. In the words of Jesus, “Whatsoever thy hand finds to do, do it with all thy might.” All great achievements have humble beginnings. You begin to compose the Fifth Symphony by practicing your scales. You begin to invent the mass-manufacture of automobiles by learning to repair watches and clocks on a Michigan farm. You begin to fashion the theory of relativity by learning the multiplication tables. “Whatsoever thy hands finds to do, do it!” Is it a glib and easy optimism to hold out the hope that one person can do something toward meeting the great needs of our time? In our massive, impersonal world may we really believe in the influence of the nameless individual? Look, for an answer, at the men who followed Jesus when he came to manhood. Today they are honored and called saints. What were they when Jesus called them? They were typical working men - fishermen, tax collectors, “the common people who heard him gladly.” They were indistinguishable from the millions around them - until they met Jesus. Then His faith in them called forth their faith in God, and these formerly unexciting men went out to turn the world upside down and to change the course of history. Is this to suggest that anyone can influence the affairs of our world? It is. There are capacities, there are powers within us beyond our comprehension. Our faith can bring us the wisdom to know what we can do and the strength to do it. Unimportant as we may seem, unequipped as we may be, impossible as the challenge may appear, we gather hope when we look again into a baby’s cradle at the heart of an ancient empire and learn to “despise not the day of small things.” Every Christmas a hope is born, a hope like the shining star which became the finger of God pointing to Bethlehem and to the future. This is the hope of Christmas: that though the outlook may seem dark, the only darkness we need to fear is the darkness within. The Prince of Peace has come, and with him the faith that some day men will “beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.” What if the news in the headlines is bad? “Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy.” Copyright 1956 by The Reader’s Digest Association, Inc. Pleasantville, N.Y. Printed in U.S.A. Reprinted from the December 1956 issue.