Imagine, you are in the market for an ornate piece of pottery to display over the fireplace in your home. It has to be useful, as well as beautiful. So, you head to the heart of Selma, NC to peruse through the quaint little antique stores lining the streets.
After several hours - or what seems like hours - you see an assortment of just the right items displayed in a store window. You cautiously push open the door. Much to your surprise and elation, you see an abundance of the items you need. Intricate pieces of pottery line the walls, price tags dangling from the shelves. Your heart races, as you check the prices, expecting to see a number far above what you can afford. However, the prices are far below what you ever expected.
Of course, you don't let the owner of the store see your excitement, so you casually pick up a piece here or there, making sure not to miss anything.
When you get to the back wall, you notice a small room with a sign overhead that says, "Clearance." Now, if you are anything like me, you immediately put aside any other thoughts of the lower priced items and head to the cheap stuff!
Immediately, you notice a difference. These items are damaged - seemingly beyond repair. These pieces are broken and shattered, lying everywhere, with bright orange price tags dangling from the shelving. Yet when you glance at these tags, you notice the price is exceedingly more expensive. As a matter of fact, these tags are ridiculously over-priced.
About that time, another customer enters the room. He proceeds to take each of the broken pieces off the shelf and place them into a shopping bag. Noticing that he has none of the "perfect" pieces in his bag, your curiosity gets the best of you. You ask, as politely as you can, "Sir, do you mind telling me why you are paying higher prices for things that are broken, when there are so many things in the other part of the store that are truly worth the money you are willing to pay? It just seems to me that you are not getting the best end of the deal. After all, this IS the clearance section."
He looks at you for a moment and then grins. His reply startles you: "Oh, on the contrary. I am getting the best deal of all. You see, these broken pieces...these seemingly worthless pieces of clearance pottery are the very basis of the work that I do. I take things that you would call trash and transform them into beautiful pieces of art. These things are needful to me. I cannot do what I need to do without them. So you see, the things that you merely see as broken, I see as priceless and precious."
You know, the whole of Scripture is brimming with people that the world viewed as broken and worthless, but God viewed as priceless and precious. He chose Matthew - a lying, cheating tax collector. He chose Jeremiah - a teenager with a self-esteem issue. He chose Isaiah - a man who confessed unclean lips. He chose Rahab - a prostitute. He chose David - a dirty, stinky shepherd boy. He chose Moses - a murderer. He chose Mary - a lower class teenager.
And then, believe it or not, He chose Belinda - a broken and dirty vessel...
Simply because He deemed me worth the price to pay. Jesus deemed me valuable and useful to His Kingdom.
So, the next time you look into the mirror and want to cry, because what you see is not perfect, and what you feel is anything but - say a prayer of thanksgiving. realizing that God uses the broken things...and people...to bring about His purposes and show His glory to the world around them. You are priceless and precious to Him, my friend. Priceless and precious.
For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. II Cor. 5:21
Thank You, Jesus, for deeming me priceless and precious and worth Your suffering. Thank You that You made me valuable. Thank You that You made me Yours. Amen.
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