My mother owned a fire-engine red 1976 Cadillac El Dorado. It was a convertible and driven only a couple of times a year, so its mileage was low. It was a beautiful classic: white leather interior, 350 under the hood.
It was a head-turner, but as mom got older we needed to do something with the car. Neither my sisters nor I had the time or money to restore it, and we certainly didn’t have a place to store it. That meant it had to be sold. But how much is a classic Cadillac worth?
I checked online and found a few of them across the country listed from $8,000 to $35,000 depending on their condition. I went and had an appraisal. The gentlemen who looked it over said that it was worth, at the most, around $20,000. I think he saw my eyes light up because he quickly said, “Just because that is what it appraises for, what it is worth is what someone is willing to pay you for it.” We did end up selling it. And it brought far less than its appraised value.
What the appraiser was telling me was the value of a thing is determined by the price it will bring. How much is a pair of red slippers worth? What if they are the Ruby Slippers worn by Dorothy in the “Wizard of Oz” — what are those worth? You can buy a Spiderman comic book for a couple of bucks, but how much is Spiderman No. 1 worth? The value of a thing is determined by the price it will bring.
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How much are you worth? Were you told, as unfortunately many are, that you are worthless? Or did someone say of you, “You’ll never amount to much.” Maybe you were affirmed and told you were precious to your parents. What others say about you does not determine your worth. The value of a thing is determined by the price it will bring.
Did you know that you have a price on your head and not the kind a bounty hunter is trying to claim? God has placed a price on you. The Bible says in Peter’s first letter to new Christians, “For you know that God paid a ransom to save you. … And it was not paid with mere gold or silver, which lose their value. It was the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God” (1 Peter 1:18-19, New Living Translation).
What are you worth? According to the Bible, more than mere gold or silver. How can something be worth more than precious metal? You are. You were worth the life of Jesus Christ, and you were worth his life before you even believed in Jesus. 1 Peter 1:20 says, “God chose (Jesus) as your ransom long before the world began.” In another verse, Romans 5:8, the Bible declares, “But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.”
Before we believed, before we had done anything good or honorable, God had already paid for us with the life of his Son, Jesus. The Father loved us so much that he paid for us with the precious blood of Jesus. Remember, the value of a thing is determined by the price it will bring. You are valuable, more valuable than Warren Buffet’s portfolio, a classic 1976 Cadillac or mere gold or silver. You are worth precious blood because you are loved that much by God.
Don’t allow others to determine what you are worth. Don’t even put a value on yourself, as many of us do. Your value is what someone was willing to pay for you. You are worth the life of Jesus because this is what God was willing to pay for you. Believe this about yourself because it is true!
The Rev. Rick Glowacki is lead pastor of Columbus First Assembly. All opinions expressed are those of the writer. He can be reached at pastorrick@columbusfirstassembly.org.
The Rev. Rick Glowacki is lead pastor of Columbus First Assembly. All opinions expressed are those of the writer. He can be reached at pastorrick@columbusfirstassembly.org.
