A well-known speaker started his seminar by holding up a $20 bill. In the room of 200 people, he asked, “Who would like this $20 bill?”
When hands started going up, he said, “I am going to give this $20 to one of you, but first let me do this.” He proceeded to crumple up the $20 bill. He then asked, “Who still wants it?” Still the hands went up. He replied, “What if I do this?” He dropped it and ground it into the floor with his shoe. He picked it up, now crumpled and dirty and said, “Now, who wants it?” Still the hands went up.
He concluded, “My friends, we have all learned a very valuable lesson. No matter what I did to the money, you still wanted it because it did not decrease in value. It was still worth $20. Many times in our lives we are dropped, crumpled, and ground into the dirt by 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. Dirty or clean, crumpled or finely creased, you are still priceless to those who love you. The worth of our lives comes not in what we do or what we know, but by who we are and whose we are.” (Author unknown)
What a great story! It reminds me that every last one of us have value. In the creation process, God said, “Let us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness…” (Gen. 1:26). So, there is something about every one of us that is in the image of God. When Jesus died on the cross for the sins of mankind, His death also included the soldiers who were gambling for His clothes. Everyone has value.
Yes, life and the decisions we make as we live it often cause us to feel worthless. And sometimes we are. But every one of us, no matter what life has done to us or what we have brought on ourselves, can be redeemed. The Bible says, ‘…if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” (2 Cor. 5:17). In Christ there is new life! There is where I want to be, don’t you? Note these words: “Therefore we are buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:4). Walking in new life clearly follows the burial in baptism. Have you been born again?
— Les Ferguson, Sr.
