Matthew 13:44-46 – The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it. (ESV)

Uncertainty, loneliness, and confusion — anxiety, aimlessness, and desertion: these aching feelings can echo their hollow voices throughout our hearts. We shudder at the coldness of how feeling lost empties us. Has your soul ever felt its uneasy presence? Lost — to be unable to find one's way, not know one's whereabouts; to be confused or insecure during calamity or to have something removed without hope of recovery.

The interesting part about being lost is that you immediately realize how valuable you are. People don't lose garbage. Losing sleep or money becomes inconsequential compared to the unwavering goal of finding your way.

Physical and spiritual lostness mirror one another. The moment that Adam and Eve's lips descended upon that sin-coated apple, they chose sin over their relationship with God — lostness over belonging to Him. When the apple slipped to the ground from Adam's palm, shame and regret crept through their minds. I wonder if the invisible spiritual realms paused in a united gasp as they watched expectantly to see what God's plan was now. His response was startling. Christ didn't shrug at our lost state with indifference but catapulted Himself from the throne room of heaven into dirty human skin as part of the greatest search-and-rescue mission ever conceived — a mission that even puzzles angels and seems too good to be real.

We know how valuable an object is from the amount of money that someone is willing to spend to buy it. In today's passage, you and I are valued as fine pearls and treasure to Jesus because of the huge personal cost to Himself to purchase us. Our value to Christ doesn't demonstrate our own worth but His. Despite our lack of value as sinners set against God, He stuns us with His insistence to claim us. He replaces our sin with robes of righteousness to restore the communion that we'd lost in the garden. Jesus' death secures our "finding", and His resurrection ushers us back into direct relationship to walk with Him in the everyday.

So, live today, not in consideration of your own worth, but His. If we constantly tell ourselves how great we are, the honesty of our hearts will eventually convince us otherwise. Instead, let's live as lost people who have been found. Let's live as people who have been freed. Let's live as people who are loved.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, help us to live with Your worth in mind, so that we can find total rest in knowing that You have already paid for our shame, given us Your strength to carry on in any circumstance, and positioned us exactly as and where we are for purposes beyond what we can imagine. Amen.

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About the author:

Andrea Thom <andreacathrynthom@gmail.com>
Niagara Region, Ontario, Canada
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