You Are Priceless

We protect what costs us the most.

Consider a great piece of art like the Italian painter Caravaggio’s Conversion of Saint Paul. In this oil painting, light bursts through chaotic darkness and rests on a blinded Saul. It’s valued as high as $100 million and kept safely in a private collection. Jackson Pollock’s Number 5, an abstract with brown and yellow drips across a background of grays and blacks, sold for a record $140 million. Chances are, these multi-million-dollar works of art aren’t stacked in an attic or boxed in a garage.

Art collectors go to great lengths to keep their investments safe. Beginning with the framing, paintings are protected from UV light and moisture. Hardware requiring a special wrench is used to hang artwork to deter would-be thieves from an easy lift. Forward-looking infrared cameras scan the environment for variations in temperature to ensure proper insulation and potential hot spots. GPS trackers and motion-sensor alarms also protect against theft.

I don’t own anything that merits motion sensors or fancy wrenches. I do, however, appreciate the idea of protecting valuables. My wedding ring is insured. I keep special keepsakes up high, away from rowdy boys and their wildly thrown balls. We store family photos in photo boxes away from light and moisture. My priceless possessions are well-protected.

First Corinthians 6:20 reminds us we are “bought at a price” (NIV). Unlike a piece of art sold at auction to the highest bidder, our price was firmly established at the beginning of mankind. With Adam and Eve’s first sin, the price to be made right with God was the life of another. God sacrificed Adam’s precious animals to pay for their sin (Genesis 3). This foreshadowed the coming of Jesus, who would give his own life for our redemption.

Because of God’s love for his most prized creation, he paid the highest price for us. “God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins” (1 John 4:9–10 NLT).

If God paid the highest price for you, will he not also protect you? Just like the owner of a priceless painting guards that painting, he guards you fiercely. He will provide for your needs and comfort you in your sorrow. You will not go unnoticed or disregarded. You have been purchased; you are God’s treasure.

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Do you ever get the feeling you’ve been forgotten? Are you in the depths of despair wondering if God hears your prayers or if he even cares? Friend, your worth was established on the cross. God paid for you with his Son’s life, and he will not forget you.

“If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” (Romans 8:31–32 ESV.)

Kelly Smith is a small town girl who married a small town man. They have three children. In the quiet minutes of her day, you will find her at the keyboard or curled up with a book–always with coffee. Kelly believes we are created for community and loves to find ways to connect with other women who are walking in the shadow of the cross. She blogs at mrsdisciple.com.

Photograph of One: Number 31, 1950 by Jackson Pollock © Bethany Beams, used with permission