40 Days of Fasting & Prayer--Day 38

That God’s presence would INVADE my value

(Colossians 3:12-17)

My daughter and I went used car shopping yesterday.  This is not an endeavor for the faint of heart.  The past year of part time work at TCBY helped her to save enough to buy her first car.  She has been poring over Craig’s List to find something that she liked but that her dad would feel is somewhat reliable.  The concept of value really came to bear in the process.

The first car we looked at was a 1990 Camry with only 98K miles.  Toyotas are reliable and it had a mostly straight body if you squinted.  The lady would take $1600 for it.  The cons of this car was that it smelled of mildew, the interior seemed to be soaking wet and the engine was pretty gutless.  I told my daughter that it was a bad idea and I think she was relieved.

On the way home, she received a call from the owner of a car that she really, really wanted to look at but we hadn’t managed it so far because the owner only seemed to be at home after dark.  You never look at a used car in the dark.  This was a 1991 VW Corrado for $1900.  The car had 133K and a lot of little things wrong with it...like the door wouldn’t open from the outside, a wiper blade didn’t work, a big vibration and various cosmetic issues.  That car sure was fun to drive though and the super charged engine sounded really good.

We drove away from the car, but my daughter was giddy about it.  We had been praying for the right car and we felt that this was the one that had the best value for the money.  Most of the fixes would be nickel and dime stuff (who am I kidding, there isn’t any such thing whenever I’ve taken a car to the mechanic) but the most important things seemed to be solid and it was her favorite color…green.  We turned around and she parted with her hard earned cash and she drove home in her very own car.

The value of that car increased as soon as Marissa handed over her money.  It was no longer $1900.  It was now priceless to her.  She saw through the flaws.  She saw through the idiosyncrasies.  Where others might not be so impressed, that didn’t matter to her.  She chose this car.  This car was hers.

Today’s passage says that we are chosen by God and dearly loved…WOW!  Despite my flaws and idiosyncrasies I am cherished by the God who owns me.  God doesn’t care what our Blue Book value is…to Him we are priceless.  Well that isn’t exactly true…we do have a value known only to God.  What we do know is that He considers us at least as valuable as the life of His only Son, Jesus.  Knowing this, I am forced to look at myself much differently.  It causes me to want to live up to how I am viewed…holy and dearly loved.

“Jesus, Your Word declares me as Your Beloved – I am alive, because You are alive!  I pray against the lies of the enemy that I’ve allowed to grip my heart about who I am.  I am Yours and You are mine!!”