Priceless Worth

Posted originally by Christine Caine.

Last weekend, I gathered in a beautiful home filled with kindhearted women to celebrate the expected arrival of my best friend's first baby. I knew maybe two of the women there, including the mother-to-be, but I connected  with these new women from all walks of life. We were joyful, filled with love and I sat in awe of the community my friend had built to support her.

But more than the beauty of the home and the overwhelming hospitality that these women demonstrated, I was struck to the core by the prayer our hostess prayed for the little boy we all were there to celebrate. She paraphrased Psalm 139:13-16 which reads:

For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before they came to be.

I have heard this scripture many times before, but hearing it spoken in a prayer for this little one, who has not yet entered the world, it spoke a new meaning to me; a meaning of worth and value.We sat in that cozy living room with hopes and dreams for this little guy. There was not one mention of expectations of what he will be, do or become. Instead, we were all aglow with hope and joy. His value was the most precious and nothing could change that in our sights.

Everyone always says babies are so precious, but when do we stop seeing ourselves that way? Why do we let the circumstances and experiences of our lives determine the measure of our worth? Our worth and our value does not decrease based on what has happened to us; nor does it increase if we gain that particular job, husband or child. Our value is determined by a most high God and King. He saw us as worthy enough to send his son to die for the sins that we committed so that our relationship with Him could be restored.

Why do I forget that my value isn't determined by someone's opinion or my performance? This world creates a mist that we fumble through to find a clear meaning of who we are. We see but through a veil, but if I look to the scripture above, the veil is lifted. I can see clearly.

 My value was formed before I was even formed in my mother's womb. My Heavenly Father saw me and said I was precious. He said I was precious when I was born, when I gradated from kindergarten and when I stumbled in my faith. My worth doesn't increase with a success or failure at work. My marriage isn't what defines my value. My life stage isn't the definition of my being. No. God has named me precious and I am choosing to begin seeing myself in the same way.

I pray that you too may see beyond the veil. May each day henceforth cause that mist to evaporate until  one day, you walk with a clear and sunny forecast of "I am precious."