Let’s talk about gold for a minute.
Gold is not very useful. It’s soft, so soft that in the old days pirates would bite coins to make sure they were gold. You can’t exactly make a sword with it and expect it to cut somebody. I’m 65% convinced that the person’s body heat would make the sword bend around their body.
It’s not good for building houses unless you want to slowly sink into the foundation. In fact, in 1 Corinthians 3 we are told expressly that building a foundation using things like straw, hay, wood, precious stones, or GOLD will lead to some very unhappy homeowners.
I’ve heard the saying “…where the streets are paved with gold” before and recently realized that no one should ever go to that place. For one, what kind of people are in charge of that place? Are they using gold bricks as a road? How could they think that’s a good idea? Also, it will become so soft that everyone will leave foot prints, much less tire marks. Who is paying for all of that gold being replaced when it becomes so dirty and indented that there is no longer a street? It’s a stupid idea.
The gold used in jewelry is mixed with other, stronger metals. If you had even a 85% gold ring it would bend all over your finger and probably break right off. It doesn’t make sense that such a pliable metal is sold for so much money. Why is it so expensive?
Because we decided it was. Back in the day, someone found a rare rock that was yellow and shiny and decided to hold on to it at any cost. They thought it was beautiful. They kept it.
Now let’s talk about God.
He made man to be something that reflected everything that He is, and man went ahead and became something … well, broken. Because of sin there isn’t really a good use for us either. We are horrible reflections of God on a regular basis. We are useless in our own ways, instead of showing the world God’s love and promises we are hateful, deceitful, selfish.
But because God is crafty (hello, the Creator of all) He puts value on us. He found us to be so valuable that His son died for our lives. Through Christ we are worth far more than what we should be valued at. We are able to become new creations. We are no longer broken creations. When we are in Christ, we are a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17). We become God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them (Ephesians 2:10).
Basically, if we are to God what gold is to us we can be secure in what He has done and no longer need to find our worth elsewhere. We don’t have to impress anyone, or be the best at our work, or need other people to love us. We can rest, assured that we know how much we’re worth to God.