Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Precious

I went to see the movie Precious the other day and it almost had me in tears. I kept asking myself, "Can anything else go wrong in that poor girl's life?" I mean she was abused by her mother, she was raped by her father, she was a single mother to two kids, she was around sixteen years old and was still in the eighth grade, and, to top it all off, she found out at the end of the movie that her father gave her HIV. Wow! Tough time!
Many of us who experience such hardships would begin to feel depressed and would probably want to check ourselves out of life (suicide). If Precious committed suicide most of us would be sad, but we would probably agree we can understand why. However, regardless of what happens in our life, we should always remember that our life still has significant value.
A text that comes to my mind about our value is Psalm 139:14 where the psalmist says, "I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are your works and my soul knows it well." As I consider this text, I can think of three reasons as to why we should always recognize that we have value.
First, we are valuable because God made us. The psalmist notes that he is special simply because he was created by God. Regardless of if his parents say he was a mistake, that does not negate his value because his existence was planned by God. A few years ago I went to Paris, France and had the opportunity to see the renowned Mona Lisa. Before I could enter the art gallery I was instructed on what I could and could not do once I entered. When I finally entered the gallery, I noted several police officers in the room, the painting had a barricade around it, and the painting was behind several inches of thick glass. After that experience I realized that if Michael Angelo can create a painting that receives so much respect, then surely anything created by the one who created Michael Angelo deserves nothing less. Since God mad you, you are valuable.
Second, we are valuable because all of creation demonstrates God's perspective of us. When God created Adam and Even, immediately after, he told Adam and Eve that everything belongs to them. I'd like to think of it as God giving us a special gift. When I was in high school I used to be very shy and I couldn't talk to girls. There was this one girl who I really liked, but I couldn't muster the words to tell her my feelings. Well, on Valenties, in an effort to express my love, I purchased her several gifts and I had her best friends to place them in her locker. When she opened the locker and saw the gifts, though I couldn't tell her how I felt, the gifts spoke for me. The same is true for God's gifts to us. The next time we feel down we should just look at the sensational sunset and realize that's God's way of saying we're valuable. When we have low self esteem we should just look at the marvelous moonlight or riveting roses and recognize that God thinks we're very special.
Finally, we are valuable because of what's inside of us. The psalmist said he is fearfully and wonderfully made and that his SOUL knows it well. Note, our soul houses our purpose and destiny. In other words, the psalmist is special because of what's inside of him. I once heard a story about a father who purchased all of his college daughter's books for her Spring semester. This was a Christmas gift. In an effort t make the boring gift look better, he went took them to gift shop and had them specially wrapped. When he gave her her gift on Christman, she instantly commented on how beautiful the outside looked. However, she then proceeded to unwrap the gift. Though the outside looked good, she unwrapped went beyond the outer wrapping because she knew that the most important gift was on the inside. What would change her life and the world wasn't the stuff on the outside, it was the stuff on the inside.
At the end of the day, regardless of everything that Precious went through, her name was still Precious. The same is true for all of us. Despite our trials and tribulations, our value never changes.

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