Spring Cleaning

Now that spring has finally sprung in our little corner of the world, I took the first available opportunity to vacuum out the van.  The combination of three little bears and a lengthy road trip at Christmas time has not been kind to the interior of my trusty steed.

 

Similarly I’ve been feeling the need to do an emotional “spring clean.”  Over the long winter months, I’ve found myself packing up baggage that I thought was neatly stored away.  It’s starting to affect my gas mileage.  I’m slowing down.  I’m tired and worn out.  I wonder if I’m ever going to learn the lessons that I previously believed I mastered.  I question myself, I question others’ affections, and ultimately I question my worth.

As I crawled in between seats, vacuuming up crumbs and gathering up miscellaneous snack wrappers, I found a penny.  It was worn and corroded.  A sticky substance lined one side.  Keeping focused on my goal of a clean and de-cluttered vehicle, I simply tossed it into the trash can.  And then as I turned back around toward my van I was struck by the thought of whom was I to decide that penny’s worth.

 

The value of a penny, a dollar, or any other denomination of currency is assigned solely by its creator.  I could have taken that sticky, corroded penny to any bank and it would not have been worth any more or less than a nice shiny new one.

As I discussed my weary state with a friend yesterday, I actually admitted that I knew what I needed to do.  The only thing holding me back was that it required being “a little more Christ-like than I cared to be at the moment.”  It’s so easy to justify this behavior when I’ve convinced myself that my worth is tied in to other people’s opinions of me, or that my value is determined by how I’ve been treated.  I cannot tell you the numbers of times in the last month alone that I’ve had the mental dialogue that my worth is based on my performance.  And the truth is that I’m tired of performing.  It’s simply easier to pull away from those who’ve hurt me.

But the scriptures tell us that each one of us is created in the image of God.

Genesis 1:27

So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him;

male and female He created them.

We are fearfully and wonderfully made. 

Nothing that happens to us is hidden from Him or surprises Him.

Psalm 139: 13-16

For You formed my inward parts;
You covered me in my mother’s womb.
I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Marvelous are Your works,
And that my soul knows very well.
My frame was not hidden from You,
When I was made in secret,
And skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed.
And in Your book they all were written,
The days fashioned for me,
When as yet there were none of them.

And that God loves us so much that He allowed His one and only son to die on the cross as payment for our sins so that we would not have to spend eternity separated from Him.

Romans 5:6-8

For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.  For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die.  But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

He loves us and wants us to love others.

John 13:35

By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.

And that’s impossible to do if we don’t recognize that only our Creator determines our value.  He created us with unique gifts and skills.  He can use all that we offer Him, both good and bad, to accomplish His good purposes.  No one else, our own actions, or any other life event can change our value.  Not only do we have worth, but the God of the Universe loves us fiercely.  And that changes everything.

Romans 8:31-35, 37-39

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?  He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?  Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.  Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.  Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

 

Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.