Crumpled, torn and stepped on

Imagine for a moment that I'm holding a crisp new $50 bill. Now imagine me extending my arm to you, offering it as a gift. (Remember, this is imaginary.) If this scenario was real, would you want it? Of course! Now imagine that I crumple it up. Then I throw it on the floor and step on it. Still want it? Absolutely! Even if I tear it in half and tape it back together, you would still want that $50 bill. Why? Because it's still worth $50. None of the abuse I've rendered to it, changes its value. It may not look as nice, or feel as nice or even smell as nice as a brand new $50 bill, but it's worth just as much either way. The highest authority in our land, the U.S. government, has decreed that this piece of paper, depicting President Grant, can be used to purchase $50 worth of goods and services. The appearance does not change its inherent worth in the slightest!

The same is true of us. Perhaps you've been "crumpled up", thrown down and stepped on by the world. Maybe you don't look or feel "crisp and new". Instead, you see yourself as discarded like wadded-up paper. None of that matters! The Highest Authority in the universe, our Creator and Savior, has decreed your worth. No matter how you look, what you've been through or what others may think of you, nothing changes the value He places on you! 

Before the beginning of time, He loved and chose you (Ephesians 1:4). He paid the ultimate price to purchase you, the blood of his Son Jesus, which is of immeasurable worth (I Peter 1:19). You are "God's special possession." (I Pet.2:9). No matter how you look or feel, God has determined that you are of infinite value to Him, and nothing you do can change that! Feeling crumpled up, torn and stepped on? Lift your eyes and look to your Creator and remember your value!