How much are you worth? I am not sure how to answer that question. Whenever I go to Haiti there is the possibility I may be kidnapped. I’m not really sure what sum to tell my family or friends to pay for my release if I do wind up in captivity. The last time we discussed it, I said to not go any higher than $50,000.00
Five years ago I talked to a very wealthy man from South America who was having very serious marital problems. His wife had been kidnapped and he dickered back and forth with the kidnappers before he paid the ransom. She was still very angry with him for not ransoming her immediately.
If we could somehow break down the chemical composition of our bodies I could tell you your material worth. You have within your body enough iron for a nail; enough sugar to fill a sugar bowl; enough fat for seven bars of soap (that may vary from person to person); enough lime to whitewash a chicken coop, enough phosphorous for 2,200 match heads, enough magnesium for a dose of magnesium; enough potassium to shoot a toy cannon, all mixed in with a little sulfur so that even in today’s inflated market you are valued at about $3.50. That is how much we are worth.
What gave the Prodigal Son his value is that he belonged to someone. He had a father. When I hear that there are 5,000 runaways every day in America, that will not cause most people to blink an eye. But if you hear that YOUR child is one of them, there is nothing that you would not do to see that your son or daughter is found.
YOU are more valuable than any precious diamond. Why? Because you belong to our heavenly Father. In the parable of the lost coin, we read where a woman turns her house upside down in a search for a missing coin. Will God not literally turn the world upside down in his search for you or for one lost soul?
What would YOU tell your family and friends to offer to pay if you were kidnapped?
What do you tell God the Father that you are really worth?
