In a vast and growing world where individuals are constantly lumped into statistics and identified by numbers instead of names, I think that we so often lose sight of our worth. Defined by numbers- whether it be finances, rank, GPA, weight, grades, etc. We trap ourselves in those lies and put ourselves in these numbered boxes- we start to let it get to us, we start to believe that the things that the world defines us by are the same things that we should define ourselves by. But if you really boil it down, none of those “defining characteristics” really even matter in the whole scheme of things.

We let those things define us and we forget that the God of the world actually treasures us. We forget that we are infinitely known and fully loved and called by name by the One who matters most. We let the opinions of others dictate how we see ourselves and we let our self worth become contingent upon those unstable, and frankly unimportant and uninformed opinions.

Never forget that you were valued by God long before you were valued by anyone on this earth. You may feel worthless in the eyes of one person but you are priceless and treasured in the eyes of the One who created you and knows you best. 

God knows you. He knows your every thought and He knows your mess. He knows what you’re like when you wake up and He knows how you are when you’re being grumpy. He sees you at your darkest- He sees it all. And Hs still loves you, chooses you, and treasures you.

Because God treasures us, His heart is with us. In fact, God treasures you so much, that the value He places on you is completely immeasurable; priceless. Not only did God sit up in the high places of Heaven and call you priceless, but He demonstrated it when He sent His son down for us- He sent His heart and His spirit to be with us and dwell among us AND He set aside heaven for us, His chosen and treasured people.

The Bible tells us time and time again that we're priceless and treasured to God, yet it's easy to lose sight of just how much we're loved. But when we look to the gospel- when we see God send Jesus down to this earth. When we see Jesus suffer a death the He was anything but deserving of. When we see that that suffering was all for you and I because of His immense love for us, we must also see the price that He was willing to pay for us.

It wasn’t just the cross. It wasn’t just the beatings and the whippings. It wasn’t just the humiliation. It wasn’t just the agonizing pain and suffering that was endured from having nails driven and spheres poking and sour wine stinging.

It was a cup of wrath meant for you and for me and for everyone else that there ever was or will be. God poured out his wrath, full strength, undiluted, onto his Son. A wrath that we will never experience or be able to comprehend or even imagine because we have been completely shielded from it in light of His love and grace. Jesus drank the cup of God’s wrath for us so that he could extend the cup of God’s fellowship and mercy to us.

He gladly and completely undeservingly took it. Because of the love He has for us. Because of the grace that He so mercifully wanted to extend towards us. Because of the desire to intimately know us. Because that’s just the kind of God He is.

Because even though the pain was immense and unbearable, you were completely worth it to Him. In His eyes, you are precious, priceless, treasured, and you are more than enough.