Have you ever been given the label that Keith Wishum once received?

As a novice summer construction worker in my high school days, I had a frustrated foreman tell me, “Boy, you aren’t worth a plug nickel!”

I’m still not sure what a plug nickel is, but I knew then that a nickel wasn’t worth much.  Was he right about me?  I certainly knew little about the work I was attempting, and I was skinny and weak and unaccustomed to long, hard days in the sun.  But not worth a nickel?

My guess is: you’ve been told the same.  Maybe not with the same words, but somebody (probably recently) found some way to make you wonder about your worth.  It doesn’t take much to create that self-doubt...

You may have been given a similar label, but now observe Keith’s lesson:

Value for an object (or person) is elusive and subjective.  Something (or someone) may actually be worth far more than its face value.  People are like that.  And sometimes so is a nickel.

In 2007, an unnamed California collector paid $5 million for a 5 cent coin.  It was one of just five Liberty Head nickels minted illegally in 1913.  Its worth is a product of its rarity and of a collector’s desire for it.

So is yours.  By our culture’s standards, you may not have accomplished much.  Maybe you never made great grades.  Maybe you can’t run fast or throw a ball far.  The letters “CEO” may never appear after your name....

Those things, however, do not decide your worth!  Your value is determined by what someone is willing to pay for you, and Jesus Christ paid for you with the ultimate price - His very life.

Peter reminded some Christians of the Price that had been paid for their salvation:  “For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect” (1 Peter 1:18-19 NIV).

If the value of something is determined by the price that is paid for it, then Wishum’s conclusions are accurate: “You are extremely valuable.  Worth far more than a plug nickel, even more than a million-dollar nickel!  No matter what anyone says, you have great worth – and tremendous potential.  The Great Collector says so.  And He wants to add you to His collection of precious people [the church].”

He will redeem from sin, give eternal life, and add you to His family when you accept His offer on His terms: place your faith and trust in Jesus (Acts 16:30-31), turn from your sin in repentance (Acts 17:30-31), confess Jesus before men (Romans 10:9-10), and be baptized (immersed) into Christ for the forgiveness of sins (Acts 2:38).  Then, continue to walk in the light of His Word and His blood will continue to cleanse you from sin (1 John 1:7).

You are valuable because God loves you.  He loves you so much that He gave His Son to die for you so that you can be saved from sin and live eternally with Him in heaven.

Won’t YOU accept His offer on His terms?

-- David A. Sargent

* Keith Wishum, “Worth More Than a Nickel” in A Word from Williams Road (11/22/16), provided by the Williams Road church of Christ in Americus, Georgia.

David A. Sargent, Minister

Church of Christ at Creekwood 
1901 Schillinger Rd. S.
Mobile, Alabama  36695

Archived issues of Living Water can be viewed and accessed from our website at: www.creekwoodcc.org