Every Soul Is Priceless
"A speaker started his seminar by holding up a $20 bill. 'Who would like this?' he asked. Hands went up throughout the audience. 'I am going to give this $20 to one of you, but first let me do this.' He crumpled the bill. 'Who still wants it?' The same hands went up in the air. 'Well, ' he replied, 'what if I do this?' He dropped the twenty and started to grind it into the carpet with his shoe He picked it up, all wrinkled and dirty. 'Now who still wants it?' Again, hands went into the air. 'You have all learned a valuable lesson,' the speaker said 'No matter what I did to the money, you still wanted it because it did not decrease in value. It was still worth $20.'"
Mr. Kays adds, "Many times in our lives, we are dropped, crumpled, and grounded into the dirt by the decisions we make and the circumstances that come our way. We feel as though we are worthless. But no matter what has happened or what will happen, you will never lose your value in God's eyes. Dirty or clean, crumpled or finely creased, you are priceless to Him."
"But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8).
The Incredible Seashell Rooster
As a family in ministry, we often didn't get a lot of quality family time during the holidays. So we had a tradition of taking a post-Christmas family road trip to sunny Florida. Along with a few gifts, each of our kids was given some cash and the opportunity, along the way, to pick out a few things for themselves. Inevitably, during these trips, we would end up in a south Florida gift shop.
It was during one of those gift shop stops that my youngest son, probably 6 or 7 years old at the time, first spotted an amazing rooster designed almost entirely out of seashells. He was completely enamored by it. He was also convinced that I would love it as much as he did.
So he took the seashell rooster to the man at the register to find out how much it would cost him. After completely emptying his pockets of what was supposed to be his Christmas money, and some negotiation over the difference, he was so proud to walk away with that amazing seashell rooster for me, his father.
From a practical point of view, I have never been given a more worthless gift. But when measured in terms of the sacrifice involved, I have never been given a more meaningful gift. In fact, of all of the gifts I've received over the years, the seashell rooster is still on my mantle. And its value to me only grows with time.
Although it serves no practical purpose, that rooster will always remind me of the time when my son completely forgot about himself, sacrificing all the money he had, in order to bless me. For that reason, it will always be one of my most valued possessions.
Something similar happened two-thousand years ago when God forgot about Himself in order to bless us. But the gift of God's Son, sacrificed for us, would prove to be anything but impractical. Once received, it would pay for our sins, restore us to right fellowship with God, assure us of our true worth, bestow the promise of the resurrection, and grant us eternal citizenship in God's Kingdom. Receiving Jesus literally satisfies all of our deepest longings and all of our most essential needs.
And when this gift is measured in terms of the sacrifice involved, we see how profoundly wonderful it really is, for it represents the highest price that has ever been paid for anything. God was willing to make the greatest of all sacrifices for the joy of loving us.
You will never be offered a more meaningful gift. May the value that you place on this gift, and the joy that you find in Jesus, only grow in time.
"Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!" (2 Corinthians 9:15).
"Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross ..." (Hebrews 12:2).
Beautiful People
In an episode of the old television series “All in the Family,” Edith and Archie are attending Edith’s High School class reunion. Edith encounters an old classmate named Buck who has allowed himself to become extremely obese. Edith has a delightful conversation with him about old times and the things they did together, but remarkably, Edith doesn’t seem to even notice how extremely heavy her friend has become.
Later, Edith and Archie are talking. She says, “Archie, ain’t Buck a beautiful person?” Archie replies: “Edith, I’ll never figure you out. You and I can look at the same guy and you see a beautiful person and I see a blimp!” And Edith replies, simply, “Yeah, Arch, ain’t that too bad!”
Jesus tells us that when we look at other people, we should see something special in them; we should see them not just as beautiful people but as people for whom He gave His life; we should see them not just as fellow believers but as people in whom He lives.
What do you see when you look at the broken person, the dysfunctional person, the needy person, the sinner? If you see anything less than one for whom Christ died, "ain't that too bad!"
Jesus said: "Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me” (Matthew 25:40).