I know thy . . . poverty, (but thou art rich).
The Lord sees riches completely differently than most of us do. Here He views many of His own who were totally destitute and yet He tells them that they were rich. How can that be? Because by being the children of God they were rich - in spiritual things on earth and eternal things in heaven. You see, God sees everything in the light of eternity. And these souls, although poor in this world, had heavenly, eternal riches that could never be taken away from them. We have this too. We need to spend more time appreciating our heavenly riches and less time trying to accumulate worldly possessions.