John 1:46- “…Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth”? Nazareth was a secluded and obscure place disliked by the Jews and Romans alike in biblical times. Equivalent to certain neighborhoods in our own day that we do our best to avoid, Nazareth was thought to be an unproductive place. A place we know exists, but if it disappeared no one would care. Nathanael found it difficult to believe that it could produce anyone of value to society and definitely not a savior. Finite thinking believes everyone is shaped by the environment they live in. Thank God that His ways and thoughts are far beyond us mortals.
Even in the darkest of times of our lives, something good can be produced out of us. Our environment should not dictate the outcome of our future; rather, we should positively affect our environment. More importantly, it is typical of God to bring goodness out of where man is greatly inclined to believe that it cannot be done. So if our Savior lived in a place which was greatly despised by most of the world—but provided salvation to all of the world, cannot we with Christ in us bring forth the best from an unwanted place (Rom. 8:28)?