Most of us daydream about suddenly discovering that we are heirs to a fortune we never knew of, and that we are no longer nobodies. That was how the gospel seemed to those who first heard it. In a world where rank counted for everything, the opening words of John’s Gospel proclaimed that ‘To all who received Jesus into their lives, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.’ Nobodies were in a moment transformed into somebodies. Even today, with all our rights and freedoms, so many of us suffer from a crippling lack of self-worth. How wonderful it is to learn that through faith in Jesus we are nothing less than the dearly loved children of God, irrespective of how others may see us or even of how we tend to value ourselves.