You’re Not a Nobody

Chapter 1 ~ WHAT YOU AREN’T

Let’s start at the beginning. 

Yours.

Let’s go all the way back to the day you were born.

And then 40 weeks further (give or take).

No matter the circumstances, God knew the day, the hour, the minute and millisecond you were conceived… and chose the exact time and place you’d be born. He knew the color of your eyes, the shape of your lips, the sound of your newborn cry… and he knows you still. 

The poet, King David, once wrote, “O Lord, you have examined my heart and know everything about me. You know when I sit down or stand up. You know my thoughts… You know everything I do. You know what I’m going to say even before I say it, Lord. You go before me and follow me… Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too great for me to understand… You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.” (Psalm 139: 1-2, 3b-5a, 6, 16, NLT)

Your mother’s pregnancy may have been unexpected, unplanned, untimely. You may even have heard you were “unwanted” by your own parents… but… 

None of that is true of God. 

In his heart, your life was planned, perfectly timed, treasured. You have a divine imprint and a destiny that no one else in the world had, has, or ever will have. 

An accident? Quite the opposite. 

A nobody? 

No you’re not.

Because God made you. 

In the beginning the Word already existed; the Word was with God, and the Word was God. From the very beginning the Word was with God. Through him God made all things; not one thing in all creation was made without him. (John 1:1-3, GNT)

Not one thing that has ever existed - including you - was made by accident. You were devised and desired by the “intelligent Designer” of heaven and earth. 

“I am the Lord, your savior; I am the one who created you. I am the Lord, the Creator of all things. I alone stretched out the heavens; when I made the earth, no one helped me.” (Isaiah 44:24, GNT)

You are the one who created my innermost parts; you knit me together while I was still in my mother’s womb. I give thanks to you that I was marvelously set apart. Your works are wonderful - I know that very well. 

My bones weren’t hidden from you when I was being put together in a secret place, when I was being woven together in the deep parts of the earth. Your eyes saw my embryo and on your scroll every day was written that was being formed for me, before any one of them had yet happened. (Psalm 139:13-16, CEB)

The One who is holy perfection, brilliant creativity, love embodied - he decided that you were wanted, welcome, worthy of his (truly divine) design and devotion. And that was just your beginning. 

God is devoted to you still.

He sees, knows, cares. Every day, around the clock, he’s attentive and attuned to you, me, all of us.

The Lord watches from heaven; he sees all people. From the place where he lives he looks carefully at all the earth’s inhabitants. He is the one who forms every human heart, and takes note of all their actions. (Psalm 33:13-15, NET)

If God created you and not only notices but cherishes you, how could you possibly think you’re a nobody? 

Maybe somewhere along the line, you started to believe that. Because somebody (or social media) told you that lie and you bought it. Or perhaps - after a big mistake, a bad breakup, a colossal failure or a season of aimlessness or loneliness - you told yourself that lie.

But it just ain’t true.

Because God said so.

The stories we tell ourselves - our perceptions - aren’t always accurate. In fact, often they’re wildly inaccurate. Disordered thinking, mental illness, memory distortion, poor self-image - these can all affect our perception. 

But what we perceive (about ourselves, others, the world, God) inevitably determines our path. 

“You are the only you that has ever lived… and if you cannot hear the sound of the genuine in you, you will, all of your life, spend your days on the end(s) of strings that somebody else pulls.” (Howard Thurman)

Our lives are the sum of our days and our decisions. And our decision making has a starting block: perception. Our perception needs to be determined by truth. 

The Truth.

Jesus. 

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life…” (John 14:6a, ESV)

Faith is believing his narrative.

You need to see yourself the way he sees you, tell yourself the stories he has written about you.

You are not a nobody. 

Or an accident.

God created humanity in God’s own image, in the divine image God created them, male and female God created them. (Genesis 1:27, CEB)

You are a reflection of the Divine. A dream come true.

Incomparable. Exquisite. Treasured. 

God-breathed.

Heaven sent.

You, dear one, are a…

Wonder. 

Text copyright © 2026 by Wendy Beth Holtz