Redeemed

The promise of redemption begins while we are earthbound but echoes into eternity. The promise of redemption is magnificent. The hope this promise creates in the hearts of men is unequaled, as is the humility it produces when the price with which you were purchased crystalizes.

Something is only worth as much as someone is willing to pay. That may sound clinical, but it is nevertheless true. You can have an emotional attachment to something or think it’s worth more than its actual value, but the rubber meets the road when you ask someone to pay a certain price for whatever you are trying to sell.

Rather than let my girls veg out in front of the television, I went to Hobby Lobby and bought them a bunch of canvases, two miniature easels, and art supplies to outlast Armageddon when they were on sale. Because I wanted to motivate them to draw, paint, scribble, or otherwise make a white canvas less so, I told them I would purchase their paintings at what I considered was a fair value.

When they heard there was the potential of making money, they took to their painting with a fervor and dedication my wallet couldn’t hope to keep up with. In one day, my oldest daughter had five works of art ready for purchase, and her younger sister had three.

When I asked them how much they wanted for their art, the older one piped up and said, “I think two dollars a piece is fair, daddy.”

“I think five dollars apiece would be fairer still,” I answered.

Were they worth five dollars per painting on the open market? Perhaps on a good day to the right buyer. To me, they were worth every penny of the five dollars and then some because their value went beyond paint on a canvas as far as I was concerned.

There is intrinsic value; then there is market value. Although the paintings I purchased from my daughters didn’t have much by way of market value, they had intrinsic, inherent value by the boatload. They were worth more to me than they would have been to anyone else because my daughters drew them.

I’m brutally honest when it comes to me. It’s the least I can do for myself. Whether it’s to be nice, avoid conflict or spare feelings, most people aren’t honest with those around them, but you can tell yourself the truth even if no one else will. It may sting in the moment, but it’s good medicine.

I know what my market value is. It’s not anywhere near what God declared my inherent value was. To be honest, my market value and my intrinsic value aren’t even in the same hemisphere.

Some people overestimate the value of things and get away with it. Remember when pet rocks were a thing and sold for ten bucks a pop or the tulip mania of the Dutch Golden Age? Those were exceptions to the rule because although there is a sucker born every minute, not every sucker has enough money to buy cruise art at an inflated price.

If you’ve done it yourself, don’t feel too bad, I know quite a few people who have. It’s that estimated value that gets you, isn’t it? You see a lithograph, which is basically a numbered copy of an original work, and the paper says it has an estimated replacement value of $8000, but it could be yours right now, as the boat is bobbing along in open water for the low price of $4000. They fail to tell you that you’ll never find someone on dry land willing to pay you $1500 for the piece, but then again, it’s in their best interest to keep that kind of information to themselves.

When it comes to you, there is no quibbling over your value because the price has already been established and paid in full. As a child of God, you should never have to wonder about your worth or if you are wanted because God proved that you are, and as far as the price that was paid is concerned, He sent His only begotten Son to redeem you.

The cost of your redemption was the life of Jesus, and He paid it gladly.

John 10:17-18, “Therefore my Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from My Father.”

You are the byproduct of a God who loved you enough to redeem you. Let that sink in. The price that was paid for you was not negligible; it was not some paltry thing like gold or diamonds; you were purchased with such a high price as to make any substitute insignificant and unacceptable. Had all the gold in all the world been lined up in baskets, had all the earth’s diamonds been piled up into a mountain, it would not have been enough to redeem one soul.

That one would need redemption presupposes alienation. It presupposes estrangement and the desire of the redeemer to pay an agreed-upon price to have that which was lost to him be returned.

You are precious. Precious enough for the Son of God to have redeemed you with His blood. No matter the struggle, the valley, or the feelings of inadequacy or worthlessness, you do not get to determine your value; God determined it for you, and it is great indeed.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.