Ephesians 2: 10, Matthew 10: 30, John 15: 13, Genesis 1: 26-27

Fiona Bridges

Hands up all of you who are clumsy! Well, join the club because I must be the world's clumsiest person when it comes to breaking things. I have broken everything from beakers in the science lab to ornaments, trophies, dinner plates and just yesterday a crystal bowl. The worst thing I have ever broken though, was my mum's antique vase!

I still remember the day I broke it. I was painting a wall and I had the vase stuck between the wall and the tin of paint I was using. I wasn't particularly fond of the vase, so I was being pretty careless each time I reached over the top of it to get more paint.

As you have probably guessed, it didn't take long before the vase was in thousands of little pieces all around me. When my mum got home she was not happy! I couldn't understand why she was quite so upset but then she sat me down and explained to me that the vase I had just broken was worth over $1000 Australian! When I heard that I nearly died! I couldn't believe it! If I had known that vase was so precious I would never have treated it so carelessly!

So why am I telling you this story? Because sometimes I think we can treat ourselves and the people around us a bit like I was treating that vase. We don't realise how precious we really are and so we are careless with ourselves. Instead of treating ourselves like we are valuable we treat ourselves like we would treat a £1 vase from ASDA. We don't think about treasuring our hearts, our minds or our bodies, instead we put ourselves down and try to increase our value by wearing the right clothes, hanging with the right people and getting the right hairstyle.

Well, if you can relate to any of that, let me sit you down and tell you now how much you are worth!

You are a masterpiece of God himself, created for a special purpose! Ephesians 2: 10
God's so darn crazy about you He knows how many hairs are on your head! Matthew 10: 30
You are worth everything to God, even more than life itself! John 15: 13
God created you in His very own image! Genesis 1: 26-27

Now all that makes you as valuable as it gets!

To help you get your head round it, go grab a coin from somewhere. Now look at the image stamped on it. It's the image that determines what the coin is worth. If the image is 20p, then it's worth 20p; if it's 50p, it's worth 50p. Nothing you can do to that coin will ever make it worth any less. Spit on it, stamp on it, scribble on it, snot on it. It will still be worth the image stamped on it!

Now get this. We are stamped with the image of God. So what does that make us worth? . You got it. we are so valuable, we are worth the life of the most precious person that ever existed - Jesus Christ! And you know what. the same as the coin; it doesn't make any difference what we have gone through in life, what has happened to us, or what we have done, we are still worth that much! Nothing can change that, not ever! .. You are one valuable piece of work!

So next time you think of treating yourself, or someone else, like I treated that vase. just remember how much we are worth! You wouldn't treat a precious china cup like a polystyrene one, so don't treat yourself like you are disposable, ordinary or worthless. You are precious!