The Eye Of The Beholder

Recently my husband and I stumbled on our first ever episode of “The Antiques Roadshow.” The show on PBS is part adventure, part history lesson, and part treasure hunt, as their website states, and offers free appraisals of antiques and collectibles as it travels around the country. I had heard about the show a lot and was intrigued, as it seemed like it would be kind of like perusing an antique shop in my pajamas, but had never hunted it out to try to watch it. When we saw it was on, we were captivated – even my husband, who loves a good deal as much as the next guy but isn’t so much all about wandering around antique stores when you don’t even know what you’re looking for.

As we watched, we saw a woman appear with a porcelain figurine dating back several decades that, according to the appraisers, would be worth several thousand dollars if it were to go to auction. When we heard the item’s worth, my husband and I looked at each other, eyebrows raised, and shrugged. To look at it, the little statue of Mickey Mouse didn’t look like much. (To be honest, it was a little bit scary to look at.) The woman, though, had suspected it to be worth something and had kept it around in hopes of cashing in one day; the appraiser, too, saw something in the figure that I did not. Both carefully eyed the character, admiring its detail and carefully pointing out its intricacies that set it apart from other similar statues. Clearly, to the two of them – if to no one else in the room – the statue was valuable.

To us, though, it still looked like any old figure of Mickey Mouse. I even said to my husband, “Well, it’s great that it’s theoretically worth that much……but it’s still technically worthless until someone is willing to pay that much for it. It’s only worth what someone will pay.”

As I often do, I fell silent after those words left my mouth, because I realized suddenly the poignant truth of what I had just said. That statement isn’t only true for ceramic Disney figures or other dusty treasures unearthed from basements around the country. No, that statement is true of everything……..even myself.

How often have I seen myself as worthless? Worse, how often have I heard the words of others…seen their sideways glances or felt their neglect…and taken their evaluation of myself to heart? How often have I allowed someone other than the One who created me to tell me who I am and what I am worth?

I am not alone in this, I fear.

Someone says a harsh word in anger or fatigue. Another, in a rush and concerned for their own schedule, rushes by without paying much attention. Someone else is careless with our emotions and clumsy with our hearts. The message we receive in those moments is not one declaring our worth, but one declaring our banality and ordinariness. “You are nothing special,” they seem to say, and we – having heard it all before – are too willing to believe it.

But then….then someone comes along to knows our value. Someone who sees us for who we are and recognizes the value in what He sees. Someone who remembers crafting us…remembers knitting us together….remembers the dreams and plans He had for us…and He places a different price tag on us.

“You,” He seems to say, “are worth everything. I will give all I have to give for you. You are worth it.”

“For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him might not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)

He steps in, offering His very life as the purchase price for our life. He willingly trades His own life for ours, with a love that sees deep into our hearts and far beyond anything the human eye can perceive. As an antiques appraiser becomes excited when he looks at something rare and valuable, so the Lord is excited when He looks at us.

“The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” (1 Samuel 16:7)

We may look at ourselves and see the flaws. The scratches on our character and the marks on our records. The smudges and tears. The rips and dings. The marks of a heart well-worn and badly used. We aren’t what we once were, perhaps, or aren’t what we feel we should be today.

Those flaws may be all too apparent to those around us, as well. An untrained shopper in an antique shop sees only dust and grime and tarnish, the results of too many years of wear and tear and neglect in darkened corners of someone’s house. The people in our lives, too, may see our imperfections and our weaknesses and our failure to measure up. They see our outside, but oh…..He is the only One who really sees our inside. He sees it…loves it…and declares it priceless. He picks us up, drags us out of the dark hiding places of our lives, and says, “This. This is what I’ve been looking for. She is perfect, and I will make her mine. I have big plans for this one.”

He takes us out of the darkness and, in the pure light of life with Him, reveals what no one else could see.

“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people purchased by and belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.” (1 Peter 2:9)

He sees us and loves what He sees. He knows our real worth, and is willing to pay the price. We are worth it because He says we are.

Who will we believe? Who will you choose to believe?

“You were bought at a price. Do not become slaves of human beings.” (1 Corinthians 7:23)