Something out of Nothing

This week, my kindergartener and I studied Elisha and the Widow’s jars.

Our Bible study routine is always the same. I get out the flannel board, and he gets out the Bible. I tell the same Bible story every morning for the whole week, and he never gets tired of it. Actually, if I miss a part, he corrects me.

One week, by Friday, I thought it would be good to change up the routine a little, so I told the story of Elijah on Mt. Carmel beginning at the end of the story and working backward. This was not acceptable. 

Stories must be told in the correct order when you are a kindergartener.

Beginnings are important. Endings, even more so.

As we talked about the widow’s jars, it was fun to see the amazement on his face when the oil from her little jar never ran out, filling all the jars in the house. 

Only God can make something out of nothing.

The widow had nothing, but God made it something. It kept the widow’s family from slavery and death.

This wasn’t a one-time thing for the Lord. He is in the business of making something out of nothing, as we can see in the time lapse of Hebrews 11. The Hall of Faith, as it is often called, follows the history of how God made something out of nothing for Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, and all the other heroes of the Bible. 

They believed that God could give them what they were hoping for. They were convinced that though they could not see Him, God was at work. 

They didn’t begin as spiritual celebrities, however. They started out as nobodies, like you and me.

This week, when New York Yankee right fielder Aaron Judge hit his 62nd homerun for the season, he joined the baseball celebrity list, following in the footsteps of Babe Ruth and Roger Maris. At the beginning of the day, he was just Aaron Judge, another famous-for-nothing baseball player, but by the end of the day, nothing had become something!

The Hall of Faith doesn’t begin with the spiritual celebrities. You might be surprised at who comes first on the list: “By faith we understand that the universe was created by the Word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.”

We. 

The Hall of Faith begins with nothings like us. It begins with accepting the fact that God created everything with just His Words! And just like that, He has made us something. 

The twinkle in my little boy’s eyes as he beholds God filling the widow’s empty jars reveals the wonder of transformation from beginning to end, and the moment we are persuaded that God made everything from nothing, we too have moved from nothings to Saints. 

Jesus said, “Behold, I am making all things new. It is finished! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.”