We all know the best food is made from scratch. Fresh ingredients combined and cooked on the
day you eat them and cooked to your taste.
Cookies, straight from the oven, bread that has been kneaded and baked
spread with butter while its still warm, pies, cakes, doughnuts, fritters,
everyone has their favorite treats and we all know that they are best when they
are made: from scratch.
Lots of heroes and heroines of the Bible started from scratch. Without visible resources or help, they
accomplished great things for God’s people in the most meagre circumstances
possible. Moses started from scratch with
the people of Israel who were enslaved and powerless. Deborah started with ravaged empty
grain fields and timid soldiers. David
started with a misfit group of disgruntled warriors, ready to go off at any
minute. Ezra and Nehemiah started with displaced
exiles just trying to survive. Jesus started
with twelve unlikely disciples. After
Peter denied His Lord, he was sifted like wheat by the devil, and by God's power started over to encourage the brethren.
Paul’s life as a leading Pharisee was ripped away on the road to Damascus,
and he started life all over as a missionary.
Lydia started a house church with a group of prayerful women who were
struggling in ignorance. Jesus Christ
started from being dead in a tomb, written off by followers and opponents, and
He burst from that tomb in glorious resurrection power to change the world.
Why is God so enamored of starting from scratch? He created the world from scratch. After we sinned and corrupted God’s world, He
saved us with His own Son. The Lord
Jesus Christ, our second Adam, remade this world and saved us, starting
from scratch. God brings His people
through difficult circumstances, often putting us in the extremity of need, so
that He gets our attention. Then God
takes us through new vistas of His loving care, His miraculous solutions to our
problems, and His calling on our lives to share in Kingdom building, starting from scratch.
Paul said, “For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus
Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God Who said, “Let light shine out of
darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the
glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing
power belongs to God and to us.” II
Corinthians 4:5-7
Starting from scratch: whether it is from our first encounter
with the living Christ or if we find ourselves hit by circumstances that bring
us down to a place of starting over, God always meets us there with resources
and help that can only be from His hand.
When we land at the bottom and begin again by faith, it is here that the surpassing power of God really shines in our lives. We become the clay jars holding the eternal treasure of the
Gospel for all to see. So when you find yourself in what seems like a dry, barren place, remember that starting from scratch is God's favorite recipe for great things. Pray, and look around for the ingredients that He has surely placed there to help you, because your story will add to the many other inspiring grace stories where God started from scratch.
Elizabeth Stone, B.S. MDiv.
