MEET NOBODY

“He wasn’t just a nobody. We loved him,” she cried, clear liquid crystal spilling over from her eyes. She wiped them with the back of her hand, but they continued to fall. I could taste her sorrow. “I want people to know – he wasn’t just a nobody. He was a good husband, and a good father, and we loved him. I don’t want him to die with everyone thinking he was no one in particular.”

The five o’clock news was covering a story about a young man who was stabbed by another resident while he was finishing his jail sentence in a half-way house. His wife sobbed her wishes into the news camera. The young woman’s words tore at my heart. “He wasn’t just a nobody, we loved him.”

Have you ever felt that way about someone? Is there someone who is important to you, but considered a nobody according to the outside world? They are not a famous movie star, a sports hero, a politician, author, or explorer. Their recent song is not a grammy winner, and they are not an influencer or any of a million titles given to people who are supposed to be our heroes, our “somebody”?

Nobodies impact our lives in significant ways every day. And yet when they die, only a few notice, or even care. Their obituary is interesting only to those who knew them. An obituary usually lists the survivors - the left behind. Mr. I.M. Nobody passed away on Thursday. He is survived by various other nobodies. He was preceded in death by another nobody. Internment is at a cemetery chosen by someone who knew him.

Each of us were created for God’s purpose and for our place and time in this earth’s history.

How do I know this? Psalm 139:13-16: "You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it. You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed."

And consider “. . . all things were created by him and for him.” (Colossians 1:16)

He created you and me for himself! He dreamed us up, designed us, and gave us breath to be with Him. God has given every nobody a unique life and a DNA structure unlike any other. If you had never been born there would be no one who could ever replace or replicate you. You are a somebody of billions of unique cells and characteristics.

Part of “Nobody” is a short story about my life. I’m a nobody. I’ve never been wealthy, a war hero, or the volunteer of the month. I’ve never saved someone from drowning, or choking, or from whatever they needed to be saved from. I’m not a famous athlete and I’m not an actor or musician or politician. But someone knows me and maybe someone else loves me. And someone knows you and probably someone else loves you.

The other part of “Nobody” is a gallery of stories about many of the nobodies that have impacted my life. When you connect with the people, they’ll no longer be a nobody.

Who was the greatest Nobody of all? Jesus Christ. He became flesh and dwelt among us. In John 1; 9-11 (NLT) the Bible states: “The one who is the true light, who gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He came into the very world he created, but the world didn't recognize him. He came to his own people, and even they rejected him.”

He was born a Nobody in the eyes of the world, under the worst of conditions. He lived a life of poverty and selfless service, with perfect love for everyone He met, for everyone He ever created. His death was a news story in the middle of the paper, of interest to some, unread by others. His obituary might read something like “He was abandoned and left alone by most of his closest friends. No one understood who or what He was doing here until after He was hanging in bloody shreds on a Roman torture rack, until after the angel of God raised Him from the tomb. He is survived on this crumbling planet by everyone who allows him to appropriate the merits of His blood for them.

So, what are we to do with the knowledge of his life’s purpose on this speck of a planet? “You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal's death on a cross.” Philippians 2:5-8:

A Nobody? In some people’s eyes, you bet! And yet, we have the right, the privilege, and the choice to say: “He is not just a nobody. I love him! I don’t want Him to die with everyone thinking He was no one in particular.”

Although the lives in these stories are not on any similar plane with His, walk with me through them, see where He is speaking to you.