Am I a keeper? Or, am I to be tossed?

If significance comes from our sense of value and worth, then our standard of measurement really matters.

Some will immediately say, ‘your personal beliefs determine your value.’ And that has some merit. However, who are you, and on what basis do you make yourself your own standard?

Generally parents, more than anyone else, impute our value. That’s reasonable. Flawed as they be, no-one is more influential or more interested in our good than our parents. It’s strange how often older children discount their parents’ love or assessment of their value. They think, ‘They’re my parents, they have to love me.’ Or, ‘They’re supposed to think I’m important.’

How odd that ‘kids’ frequently place more stock in the opinions and ideas of complete strangers, whether common or so-called experts, than those of their parents. Let’s see, the stranger throws out an idea on the Internet, and wow, that’s big. Parents drain to the dregs their life’s treasure, time, energy and devotion to the child who says, ‘eh, what do they know, after all?’

It’s certainly not a given that parents will value their children. If you’ve lived a few years on the earth, you know that’s not the case. The ‘great thinkers’ of this world have proclaimed their truth regarding the worth of individual humans. They’ve made their choice in fomenting the worldwide murder of countless millions of boys and girls before their first breath is taken.

Mankind, under the spirit of rebellion from God, has a long trail of disregarding human life. They are ignorant of His ways. They are bent, even the highly educated, (or I should say, especially the highly educated) on destroying all the life that does not serve their interests.

We realize eventually that beyond a very small circle, nobody gives a fleeting thought about us.

Our worth, our significance must be inherent. Otherwise it must be determined by a world system of people who are at best indifferent to us - to whom our life or death means nothing.

At some level everyone chooses the measure of their own value and the criterion by which it’s measured. Everyone lives up or down to his or her perceived significance.

No human came into existence by his own power or will. Most of the world’s inhabitants believe in a god - something or someone beyond us. And from the teachings about that god and that god's assessment of people, we attribute value.

Many gods are capricious, fickle and aloof. (A bit like us.) They demand obeisance by the offerings of wealth, good works, and even the sacrifice of children. Your approval is based on your performance.

The supreme attributes of the Hebrew/Christian God toward people are love, mercy and an immutable will to all goodness. The first man and woman were made in the very image of their Maker. God gave man dominion over the whole earth with the Authority to rule. All the power and goodness, mysteries and treasures of eternity were available to him. Most importantly, perfect intimacy and union with the God of Glory, was his birthright.

Significance: Inherent. Infinite. Irreversible.

We’ve heard the story of how the devil tempted the first woman and man to want a glory, an identity, a self distinct from their Creator. Through deceit he convinced them that by acting against God’s word, they’d uncover the secret knowledge that God hid from them, and so become like Him. It was a great trick. Satan enticed them with the prospect of becoming ‘like God,’ which distracted them from what they already were - ‘made in God’s image and likeness.’

Man took the bait - or the bite, as it were. (Sorry, I couldn't resist.)

This rebellion broke man’s life from his source. He, in himself, had no means to restore it. He traded his union with eternal Light and Life and united with the spirit of darkness and death.

Whatever significance and purpose God intended for man at creation is inseparable from him and can never be altered . . . it is

Significance: Inherent. Infinite. Irreversible.

The value this God placed upon each individual was from a perfectly caring and merciful Father. So great was this love and value to us that in our state of rebellion and death he entered the world himself through His Son. He made a way where there was no way. By giving up his own perfect life in our stead, Jesus consumed every curse man’s rebellion incurred. He was judged and executed and took on Himself every fault that kept us from intimacy with God.

This is to say that our significance is displayed by our Father-Creator who, while we were in open rebellion, sent Jesus to die for us. So that when we heard the news of this way back for us into God’s everlasting family, we might believe. We would be utterly convinced, that no penance, no sacrifice, no contrition, and no effort by us would have made that possible; but solely the compassion, mercy and lovingkindness of our Father.

It's quite a fantastic story. If one chose to count this story as their own, they would take to themselves a significance that nothing can excel.

To dismiss the story, and dismiss the history of this God’s appeal as described in the Bible, leaves many options for one to assess his significance. None of which approaches the boundless love expressed in Jesus Christ. For per chance someone would die for a good man, but while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.

Jesus is the one only, absolute and perfect revelation of the Creator of all that exists. As such, His self-declarations to mankind were profoundly revolutionary. They reveal God’s view of our significance:

I came to seek and to save the lost.

Whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave; just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.

I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.

To the self-sufficient, the cynical and the brilliant, such words appear as rubbish for fools and simpletons. But for the broken and destitute, the wretched, unwanted and desperate these words are springs of life; rains of hope to their desolate souls.

I am sad for those who, while disconnected from their Source, esteem themselves so highly. For when we, in the state of our own wisdom, set our value distinct from God’s measure (who counts our inherent significance as beyond measure), we distance ourselves from His mercy. For Jesus said, I did not come for the well, but for the sick.

God’s whole deal was and remains to slake the parched, to make the weak strong, the poor rich, and the dead and lost, alive again.

Our true significance is nowhere better expressed than in the book of Isaiah chapter 61. In the attempt to rescue and retrieve his own children, God utterly wrings Himself out.

Here, the everlasting Father-God placed the anointing of His Spirit upon Jesus . . . for what reason? For His unfathomable, inconceivable, staggering priority that Jesus should go to mend our broken hearts. To open the prisons of our souls, and to repair our disease-ridden bodies. A mercy so great, an entreaty so tender has never fallen on the ears and hearts of human beings.

To the world your value is as changeable as dust in the wind. To God your Father, your significance is incalculable - as high, as deep, as far and as wide as the universe of Jesus’ love for you.

Your significance is: Inherent. Infinite. Irreversible.

You will always be a keeper.