...In Christ, God put the wrong on him who never did anything wrong, so we could be put right with God. 2 Corinthians 5:21 (The Message)
There are many ways to calculate value or worth. Probably the easiest way to figure how much something is worth is to determine how much money we would have to give to possess it or to replace it. How much do we pay for a gallon of milk or a new car?
But how do we figure the price of a family heirloom? Many of us grew up on stories of how a great-grandparent hauled the family piano from Ohio to Colorado by covered wagon. We heard about how people decided to cross Panama—before the canal was dug—in order to avoid the dry central plains and they carried the family clock to California through infestations of mosquitoes and swamps. These tales add the value of our history to these items. How can we determine a price for our history?
One of the hardest things to realize is when we are the last of a generation and, when we die, the younger generations don’t have a connection to the tales of our history. The artifacts that held so much meaning for us will probably go on the auction block and be sold to someone with no connection to the item.
How do we determine the worth of a life? The value of a commercialized animal or plant can be determined by how much time and money is invested into that life. How much does it cost to run a feedlot or a nursery? But what about our pets? How can we place a value on a dog who greets us when we come home from a hard day at work with such joy that the difficulties of the day drop away from us? How do we place a dollar amount on the cat who comes up to sit with us when we’re feeling sad or lonely; the fish who swims over to us when it hears our voice; or the plants who repay our efforts by producing vibrantly colored blossoms?
When we wonder (as many of us do) how much value we are adding to the world, it might be good to think about the price that God paid for us to join him in heaven. There isn’t anything that we can give him that he doesn’t already own or can’t create. We bring all our problems to him and, when he doesn’t give us what we want, when we want it, and in the way we want it, we make sure that he knows of our displeasure. And yet, in spite of all that, God paid for our company with the life of his son. I believe that Jesus was beaten to a bloody pulp and put to death so that we could come to know God. What is our value? We’re priceless!
Becky Gillette is a former teacher, newspaper reporter, and preacher who seeks to take an original approach to life’s lessons. She has recently published her first book, Jessie’s Corner: Something To Think About, which is now available for purchase. Based on several lesser-known scriptures from the Bible, this is a collection of articles which she wrote for a weekly newspaper.
