Greatly Valued No Matter What

But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”

─ 1 Samuel 16:7 ESV

Janie turned the giant glass jar upside down and shook it to force the quarters out of the narrow opening. As the silver poured out onto her bed, her four-year old daughter, Caitlin, ran her tiny hands through the pile of coins slowly.

Suddenly, Caitlin stopped and picked up a dull, tainted and bent coin. “Mama, this one’s ugly and dirty,” she pointed out, while scrunching up her face.

Janie smiled. “Yes, it’s a tired and worn coin. It’s been used a lot and probably been in some rough places, but it spends the same as the shiny ones,” she told her daughter.

“How come?” Caitlin questioned.

“Because no matter where it’s been, what it looks like or what has happened to it, it’s still worth 25 cents, the same as all the other ones,” She replied.

“Kinda like God loves us all the same, no matter what?”

“Exactly!” Janie said, thinking of God’s words to Samuel when He chose David as Israel’s next king (1 Samuel 16:7 ESV). She smiled to herself thinking about the sweet times like this when Caitlin gave her the teachable moments instead of the other way around.

You are precious and valuable to God, no matter your history. He loved you before the foundations of the world and gave His Son for you.

Today’s One Thing

Take a moment today and think about how God loves you. See yourself as God does. Thank Him that your worth never depends on anything you could ever do and instead, relies only on what Jesus did for you.

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