From Nothing to Something
Do you like to read “rags-to-riches” stories? These are the accounts of those people who began with nothing and then became rich and famous. Like the story of Leonardo Del Vecchio who was an orphaned factory worker whose eyeglasses empire today makes Ray-Bans and Oakleys, or Ingvar Kamprad, who was born in a small village in Sweden. He first bought matches in bulk to sell to his neighbors. Later he expanded to selling fish, Christmas decorations and pens, which grew to became IKEA. There are many such stories of people who began with nothing and who then saw their dreams fulfilled.
The Bible is also full of these kinds of stories; stories of those like: Jephthah, who was a son of a prostitute and rejected by his people. He was driven from his home by his half-brothers and became a “gang” leader of worthless men. He later delivered Israel from the Ammonites and was elevated to become a judge in Israel. Then there is the story of David, a shepherd boy who rose to be king. Or, Rahab, the Canaanite prostitute who became part of the lineage of David and Jesus. From fishermen to apostle, from being sterile to a mother of nations, and from losing everything to getting all back in double, all show how God makes something out of nothing. These were not born with a silver spoon in their mouths, but rather witness to the grace and power of God in their lives. They started with nothing, but they didn’t end with nothing. If it happened in the past, it can happen now.
God spoke to Israel through the prophet Ezekiel saying that he chose Israel when they were nothing and made them into a great nation. He uses such descriptive language when he says: “When I passed by you and saw you wallowing in your blood, I said to you in your blood, Live!” (Ez. 16.6) God took an aborted fetus and spoke life into it. The Lord then raised this life with such care and when she was of the age of love, adorned her with wedding garments and jewels and made an everlasting covenant with her. This is Israel’s own “rags-to-riches” story. Though she has stumbled many times throughout her history, God still calls her His own.
God takes us when we are nothing and makes us into something. The Psalmist writes that those who make the Lord their habitation go from strength to strength. Even when they go through the “valley of Baca”, which means “weeping”, their life is transformed. The dry places become springs and the rain fills up their pools. (Ps. 84) It does not matter how someone begins, but rather how they end. Walking with God is not starting with great signs and wonders and then leveling out into a boredom of an existence, but it is going from one degree of glory to another. As David said in the Psalms: “He made my feet like the feet of a dear and set me secure on the heights.” (Ps. 18.33)
Jesus took the five loaves and two fish and fed five thousand. In the Lord’s hands a few is many, little is big and nothing is something. He takes who you are and what you have to do great things. God asked Moses what he had, not what he needed to deliver Israel from slavery in Egypt. Place your life in the Lord’s hands and He will make something wonderful out of it. You will have your own “rags-to-riches” story.
Scriptures to meditate on
Ez. 16.6-14; Judges 11; Psalms 84; 18.31-38; II Cor. 3.18;