A national charge card has a TV ad that runs variants of this theme: Tickets to a concert, $125; limo ride to the concert, $80; time spent with your daughter who invites you to attend the concert with her, priceless.
Let me tell you about a few “priceless” things I own. I have a ceramic frog whose wide-open mouth gives access to paper clips. Then there is a piece of cross-stitching that says “I love you, Dad.” Finally, our hall closet has a wooden box that holds assorted extension cords and light bulbs. All are priceless.
Never mind the fact that the green frog has a bad eye, that the cross-stitching is not quite precise, or that the corners of the box don’t meet evenly. They are priceless because they are gifts made by my children back in their kindergarten days. Now all of them are grown and have children of their own.
You’re no different, are you? You have pages ripped from coloring books that are pinned to a bulletin board or held on your refrigerator door with magnets. You have craft items on your bedroom dresser or den shelves. And, like my wife, you may have storage boxes filled with “surplus” items too numerous to display.
Not one of those things has any market value! They will never make a gallery or museum display. And nobody else would give them a second glance. The unique thing about every one of them has to do with perspective. Each was the handiwork of a child I love more than life. Thus each is genuinely priceless to me.
Do you know why God will listen attentively to your prayers today? Why the Holy Spirit will empower you to face an ordeal of pain or embarrassment that is on your horizon? Why your moral failure that may well cost you a job or your marriage will not jeopardize your relationship with Jesus Christ as your savior?
The holy eyes that gaze down on us from heaven are not those of a tyrant or enemy or detractor. They are the adoring eyes of the Triune God who created us to bear the divine image and likeness. They are the friendly eyes of a friend and advocate and benefactor. God sees my failures, your fumbling attempts at giving him honor, and our flawed imitations of the one Perfect Son’s life through the eyes of a doting mother or father who is multiplying mercy upon mercy.
“As a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you” (Isaiah 66:13 NRSV). “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!” (Matthew 7:11 NRSV). “Nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:39 NRSV). Talk about something utterly priceless!
If you are being hard on yourself, try to remember God’s perspective on you. “What marvelous love the Father has extended to us. Just look at it – we’re called children of God. That’s who we really are” (1 John 3:1 The Message).
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