The Gentile widow had nothing...
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The Gentile widow had nothing to give Elijah, and yet he healed her child. It seems like the poor widow got something for nothing! Americans don't like this message, especially those 60% of us convinced (according to Harvard economist Edward Glaaeser, see his A World of Difference) that the poor are lazy. What Ronald Reagan's press secretary Lyn Nofziger said still captures the Tea Party mood:
The reason this country continues its drift toward Socialism and big nanny government is because too many people vote in the expectation of getting something for nothing, not because they have a concern for what is good for the country.
But even if we grant that in the realm of everyday interactions American author Napolean Hill is right in telling us that "there is no such thing as something for nothing," with God it is clearly different. It is not just this widow who brought nothing to God and got something. God seeks out people like us who have nothing to give him. We bring nothing to our salvation and yet receive it (the biggest something a creature should receive). We bring nothing to our birth and yet receive life. Even the creation, which was out of nothing, exemplifies how God gives something out of nothing.
The physicists' Big Bang Theory bears out the truth that the gift of existence exemplifies that God makes something out of nothing. No two ways about: When it comes to God's work we all get something for nothing. For as Martin Luther once put it, for we have a God "who out of an impossible thing can make something possible, and make something out of nothing" (Complete Sermons, Vol. 3/1, p. 133).
The reason this country continues its drift toward Socialism and big nanny government is because too many people vote in the expectation of getting something for nothing, not because they have a concern for what is good for the country.
But even if we grant that in the realm of everyday interactions American author Napolean Hill is right in telling us that "there is no such thing as something for nothing," with God it is clearly different. It is not just this widow who brought nothing to God and got something. God seeks out people like us who have nothing to give him. We bring nothing to our salvation and yet receive it (the biggest something a creature should receive). We bring nothing to our birth and yet receive life. Even the creation, which was out of nothing, exemplifies how God gives something out of nothing.
The physicists' Big Bang Theory bears out the truth that the gift of existence exemplifies that God makes something out of nothing. No two ways about: When it comes to God's work we all get something for nothing. For as Martin Luther once put it, for we have a God "who out of an impossible thing can make something possible, and make something out of nothing" (Complete Sermons, Vol. 3/1, p. 133).
