Thanks for Nothing (02/21/2025)

I hate coming onto an interstate highway. The cars and trucks are going 70+ miles per hour. They won’t or can’t always move over to make room. The ramp lane is only so long. I was coming onto I-90, and I headed down the ramp toward the highway, it was solid with cars and semis. There was no room in sight. What would I do if I ran out of lane before a spot opened? I kept driving and looking in my side mirror. And then just as my lane was running out, the traffic broke. Behind that crowd of semis was open road, unoccupied road. It was beautiful to behold. “Thanks, LORD, for nothing!”

One of my favorite lines in Shakespeare is the jester’s question of King Lear, “Can you make no use of nothing?” We humans do struggle with “nothing.” Perhaps it is my age that has opened my eyes to the gifts of nothing. The highway that gave me “nothing” in my lane, the radiology report that found nothing, the bill that comes with a balance of nothing – these all make me grateful. As I look at my calendar, there is nothing on the square for today. “Thank you, LORD, for nothing.” It’s been a hectic week. Free time with nothing that must be done is such a gift occasionally.

Gifts, you see, don’t have to come in boxes with bows. They aren’t measured by their weight or size. Sometimes, you see, the greatest gifts are “nothing.”

As we journey in faith, hope and love, let us recognize the gifts the LORD gives to us are love sent and love filled. Love weighs nothing; love takes up no space. May we have eyes to perceive the gifts that may appear as “nothing” but are just what we need in the moment.

Until tomorrow, let us all love well.