Valued

A mother’s job is the most unappreciated and at most times, overlooked. Mothers don’t get a raise or a commendation for the job done. Often than not, all they have is a constant struggle to meet the demands of the family.

As a mother, I can live without gracing the covers of a magazine or getting an award, but there are days when it rankles when I have spent three hours laboring in the kitchen and all the kids want to do is to spit out the food I cooked.
Or I have been looking forward to having some semblance of a social life, and all I get is a solo walk and dinner since friends are busy with their own thing. The towels are on the floor, the toys, the clothes, and my husband comes home wondering if I ever did anything at all all day.

When I was a stay-at-home mom taking care of my babies, I often heard comments from women friends saying that they don’t ever want to stop working and simply stay at home smelling “stir fried” and looking “mashed”. I couldn’t help but feel a little of my value slipping. I have been reduced to what I do in the sink and with the floor.

Living in a society driven by the media and being identified by our account name, employment or education, we often wonder where we are standing and if anybody cares. We get recognized by whether we have an email add, or whether we have a twitter or FB account; and if we have followers or we got a lot of likes on our page. We post and we wonder whether people even read or care to know what is really going on with our lives or worse, if they really want to keep in touch with us… and how they will find out that we are gone when we are not there anymore to post--- “Sorry, but I died.”

Are we as unnoticeable or dispensable as we think and feel we are? Does anybody care?

God cares. This is not a pat answer. There is no reason to believe what other people, or our circumstances, or what our own feelings dish out to us about our worth, when the Creator of heaven and earth, Himself, made sure we know when He said in Luke 12:24, "Consider the ravens, they do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds!" Ravens that feed on the dead are valuable in God’s eyes? 

Here’s more… Jesus added, “Consider how the wild flowers grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these" (Luke 12:27). These flowers are so common, but in God's eyes they are more beautiful than any king's wardrobe, much, much more than king Solomon's. Wow! I don't have to wear designer label clothes to get His attention.

Furthermore, God affirmed our value by saying, "If that is how God dresses the wild grass, how much better will he dress you! After all, the grass is here only today. Tomorrow it is thrown into the fire" (Luke 2:28). God even cares for weeds, all dressed up in green, the color of 2017! See, even our fickle and changeable fashion industry recognized that nature, God's handiwork, is worth imitating.

It blows my mind how God values me! He cares for even the least like the lowest of ravens, the most ordinary of lilies, and the nonessential grass... so how much more does He think highly of you and me? Even how low or dispensable or incognito we feel, God cares for us. God knows our finite end or our imperfect state; nonetheless, He still loves us and cares for our needs. And you know, what’s more?

Jesus values us so much to even call us--- His friends. “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love... I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends... I no longer call you servants... Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you so that you might go and bear fruit" (Luke 15:9-16).

Ah, we are not valued by what we do or how we look or even by our significance, for there is nothing worthy in us. But looking at the light of what God did on the cross, He put a value on us worthy of His love, His life and His kingdom. Nobody or nothing can take that away from us. You are redeemed. You are valued. You are loved.




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