Nothing is for Nothing

How sovereign is God? We wrestle with this question when plans fall through and time ticks away and we suffer and we laugh and we say goodbye.

“Nothing is for nothing,” Elisabeth Elliot said.

And she knew about years of waiting and the hard lessons of suffering. She said goodbye before she wanted to and welcomed trial when she would have rather chosen joy.

God doesn’t waste our time. Or our pain.

He takes the random meeting of a stranger or a friend and the hard knocks or the wrong choices and the years of unsuccessful trying, and He patches it all together into something beautiful. More beautiful than we could design.

Because “nothing is for nothing.”

“Christ didn’t leave this world until He showed us His scars—and He won’t ever let you leave this world until you leave your most beautiful mark. To show Him.” –Ann VosKamp

There is no such thing as the too small or the too insignificant.

Or something that happened for nothing.

Yes, time ticks away. But with every tick, we are leaving our mark. And the hidden marks are the most beautiful to Him, when they’re done for Him.

So write that note only your friend will read. Pray longer than you have time for. Be kinder than is expected. Be thankful for more than you thought you had.

Think more about the scars He showed us before He left.

Nothing is for nothing.

"He has made everything beautiful in its time." ~ Ecclesiastes 3:11