The Body: What are you worth?

In this series of posts, I am taking material from children's Sunday School, talking about a few of the wonders of the human body. Much of the material comes from Bill Bryson's book, The Body, along with a little research from other sources.

But this is not a book report. It is an attempt to use some of these "wonders" to illustrate spiritual truths.

And so, this first lesson, "What are you worth?"

In Jr. High (yes, way back when they called it Jr. High rather than Middle School) one of my teachers said that the materials of the human body were worth a few dollars and cents, something less than five dollars. Well, the Royal Academy of Science in England did their own study, and determined that it would cost more like $150,000 to purchase the elements in their proper forms to build the human body.

There would be lots of oxygen and hydrogen, about 61% of the human body. You would need to purchase 30 pounds of carbon (for an adult male). And then there are a whole bunch of other elements in tiny quantities. Some of them are very expensive, but since you would need so little, it would not count all that much.

But, spread all these ingredients out on a work bench, you still do not have a human being. You do not have anything like human life. You have "the dust of the ground" containing various elements or minerals.

So, what are you worth? The answer, clearly, is neither $5 nor $150,000. Because the pile of "stuff" on the table is not you; it is not a person. And further, your worth is not found in your parts; it's found if whatever "you" is.

What is a human "you"? It is a creature made in the image of God, called man and woman. It is the creature who is created alongside other animals, living souls who are the crown of creation, built to walk in fellowship with God and to steward His creation. 

Our value, then, is found in the One who made us; and the One who loves us. He loves us, not because we have good hair or good skin, but because He loves us. It is not what we, His creation, have available to us any good thing to offer Him, our Creator, since He stands in need of nothing. It is not in the performance of duties, since every single ability we have comes from Him in the first place. He loves us because He loves us. We are valued by the King of the Universe.

But what if we are ugly? What if we are deformed, or damaged? First, God looks not on the outward appearance, but on the heart. And I would venture that many of those with external difficulties are more perfectly formed with an internal beauty. But again, He loves us, not because we are especially pleasing, but because He loves us.

And what about those days when we are so disappointing to ourselves, and we sure that we must be disappointing to God as well. Our own estimation about our worth drops so low, we wonder whether it is worth it to keep going. He loves us, not just when we feel love-able, but all the time, and perhaps especially when we feel most un-love-able. 

What about others, upon whom we look down? Doesn't God also look down on them? Not for a second. And since He doesn't, we had better knock it off as well. Just because you are attracted to someone doesn't make them more valuable to God; and just because you are turned off by someone else doesn't mean that they are less valuable to Him.

Our value is established, not by the Royal Academy of Chemistry, but by the God who created us and redeemed us. We are so valuable, He was willing to sacrifice His Son, Jesus, to have a relationship with us. He loves us. He loves you. His love establishes your worth.