Worthless or Valuable?

How many times have you looked down when walking? To save myself from tripping I focus mostly on the ground as I walk. There are lots of things on the ground. One day while walking out of a convenience store, I found a folded up $10 bill. I looked around for the owner and saw one person, the man who left the store just before me. He said it wasn’t his, so I got just a little richer that day.

Not many people stop to pick up a penny or a quarter for that matter these days because they are not worth much.  But I rarely miss the opportunity to pick up any coin. As I was walking my dog I saw a penny in the middle of the street. I bent down and picked it up. It was the sorriest looking penny I have ever seen. I took a picture of it next to a nice penny so you could see how bad it looked.

As I walked I heard the gentle voice of God compare this penny to a person. How many times in our lives do we pass people by because they look too rough? They aren’t pristine and shiny like the penny on the right. They are more like the mangled, dented, indistinguishable penny on the left. God says that He loves them. And if He loves them we should too.

I thought of how people would pass up this penny.  And how a bank would immediately take it out of circulation because of its condition and replace it with a new penny. What about the broken and damaged people who no one wants around? We can’t replace them. But if we pick up them up and bring them to God, He will make them into shiny new creatures in Christ.

2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. (NASB)

Most people would quickly pick up the $10 bill because of its face value. But I found more treasure in the mangled penny. On the surface it is worthless and rough, but it has taught me a valuable lesson in how to treat people. That is worth more to me than all the money in the world.

Today as you go about your day be aware of  those who look or act broken and damaged. Make sure you don’t just pass them by, but offer them the love of God through your words and actions so they can become the new creatures in Christ and be shining examples of God’s love.

Enjoy your week. I’ll be back next week with more.