From Nobody to Somebody

By Cheri Cowell –

Are you widowed? Disabled? Downsized? Empty nesting? Do you feel the world telling you that you are no longer useful or have no purpose?

During Bible times a widow, even one with considerable wealth, would have been someone without purpose, someone to be pitied and powerless. Women had value primarily through their husbands or fathers, but many widows had no such connection.

As a woman of wealth, prior to her husband’s death, Mary, the mother of John Mark, would have commanded a leading role in supporting her husband’s affairs. However, upon his death, she would have become powerless and a nobody. But then she met Jesus through a traveling missionary and all of that changed.

We know that Mary’s home was the gathering place for the early Christian Church in Jerusalem. When miraculously released from prison, Peter went directly to Mary’s home where he knew the believers would be gathered. She was no longer a nobody without influence or power. In the world she was just a widow, but in God’s kingdom she could use her gifts to glorify Him and serve the growing Church. Because Herod Antipas had recently executed the Apostle James, it took courage and great faith to offer her home as a place of worship and prayer. She was no longer a nobody; she was a somebody with a mission and purpose.

“When this had dawned on him [Peter], he went to the house of Mary the mother of John, also called Mark, where many people had gathered and were praying. Peter knocked at the outer entrance, and a servant named Rhoda came to answer the door” (Acts 12:12-13 NIV).

PRAYER: God, there are times when I feel like a nobody or someone lacking purpose and direction. I ask you to give me a new purpose like you did with Mary. Thank You that in Your kingdom there are no nobodies, because You as my Somebody has re-purposed each person who gives his or her life to You.