Ragweed
Marcus Verbrugge /
Tuesday, October 19, 2021
Recently I went on a bike ride. As I often do, I cycled along the Greenway, and as I often do, I asked God to speak to me as I sped through the trees, along the fields and passed all the greenery that He made. It was a beautiful late summer day.
I kept noticing that this year the ragweed was taller. The goldenrods seemed more abundant. No doubt that’s on account of all the rain we had in our little corner of our great nation. Then the Lord spoke to me, and I found myself asking the question, “If I took a stalk of ragweed to the farmer’s market, how much do you think I could sell it for?”
Of course, we all know that if anyone took a stalk of ragweed to the farmer’s market, you wouldn’t be able to sell it at all. No one wants to buy a random weed! So, you’d get nothing, right? Nothing is a good answer. Yet actually you would get less than nothing for it, because the time you took to pick it and set up your stall at the farmer’s market and the time you spent trying to sell it would all be completely wasted. So, you would get LESS than nothing for it. And as I thought about that, the Lord reminded me of Isaiah 40, where the prophet reminded God’s people;
“Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket, and are accounted as the dust on the scales; behold, he takes up the coastlands like fine dust. Lebanon would not suffice for fuel, nor are its beasts enough for a burnt offering. All the nations are as nothing before him, they are accounted by him as less than nothing and emptiness.”1 (pause)
We may highly value our way of life. Our political system, our business, and houses and all the stuff that makes up the way we live our lives. But God counts all of that – all the architecture and infrastructure and the economy and all that matters so much to us and all of the things that make up our country – as less than nothing. It is not our boundaries or estates or portfolios and enterprises that God cares for – those things are to Him like a stalk of ragweed is to us. What God cares for is people. It is those He made in His image to walk with Him in eternity. People matter, not our land and resources.
It was a powerful reminder that all we’ve ever had, and all we have now, and all we ever will have – all come from His hand. They are gifts to be stewarded – resources to be used in His mission. And truly, they are nothing more!
1 Isaiah 40:15-17
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