Crumpled and Priceless

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” (Matthew 7:7-11 ESV). A well-known speaker started off his seminar by holding up a $20 bill. In the room of 200, he asked, "Who would like this $20 bill?" Hands started going up. He said, "I am going to give this $20 to one of you but first, let me do this." He proceeded to crumple the bill up. He then asked, "Who still wants it?" Still the hands were up in the air. "Well," he replied, "What if I do this?" And he dropped it on the ground and started to grind it into the floor with his shoe. He picked it up, now all crumpled and dirty. "Now who still wants it?" Still the hands went into the air. "My friends, you have all learned a very valuable lesson. No matter what I did to the money, you still wanted it because it did not decrease in value. It was still worth $20." Many times in our lives, we are dropped, crumpled, and ground into the dirt by the decisions we make and the circumstances that come our way. We feel as though we are worthless. But no matter what has happened or what will happen, you will never lose your value in God's eyes. To Him, dirty or clean, crumpled or finely creased, you are still priceless to Him. Annie Johnson Flint has written a wonderful poem, “New Every Morning.” As I began to think of the many things that have taken place in my life over the past fifty plus years, it seemed that I needed to be reminded again of how much my heavenly Father really loves me. Regardless of how I might have been “used,” I am immeasurably valuable to Him. Perhaps her poem will remind you of that love also. Yea, “new every morning,” though we may awake, Our hearts with old sorrow beginning to ache; With old work unfinished when night stayed our hand With new duties waiting, unknown and unplanned; With old care still pressing, to fret and to vex, With new problems rising, our minds to perplex In ways long familiar, in paths yet untrod, Oh, new every morning the mercies of God! His faithfulness fails not; it meets each new day New guidance for every new step of the way; New grace for new trials, new trust for old fears, New patience for bearing the wrongs of the years, New strength for new burdens, new courage for old, New faith for whatever the day may unfold; As fresh for each need as the dew on the sod; Oh, new every morning the mercies of God!