Worth More Than Gold

Have you ever wondered what makes some of the most famous pieces of art priceless? Of course, part of their value is based on the uniqueness and beauty of the art itself. However, I am talking about the other part...the part we don't really think about.

I was actually looking at a picture the other day of a painting that someone had posted. It was pretty costly in price and at first glance I could not figure out why it would be so expensive. In my eyes, it looked as if a three year old was given a paint brush for the first time. However, I then read the story behind the painting and all of a sudden the price made sense.

I was amazed.

Afterwards, I remembered wondering about other works of art that I had questioned throughout my life and how I prejudged their beauty before knowing their story.

Many times I have looked at paintings such as the Mona Lisa and questioned why it would be worth so much when it was worn out, cracked and even torn in areas. Or the marble sculpture of Aphrodite by Venus de Milo? Throughout the centuries, her arms were broken entirely off! How possibly could someone still find beauty, let alone worth, in things that are battered and beaten, and even broken from years of abuse and neglect?

I honestly did not know the answer to my question until I went to prison.

It first started wth me. I looked at myself in the mirror one day and was taken back at the reflection before me. I looked tired and worn out. There were scars from abuse throughout my life and inward scars that were not as obvious to the human eye.

However that day, I did not just look at myself. Instead, I took time to thoroughly examine myself, inside and out.

It was this day that brought me to my knees in prison. It was at this moment when I realized that as ugly as I may have felt there was one who thought me to be priceless and stunning.

It was also this day that I understood that I had been trying to find my worth in everyone and everything else BUT the one who had actually created me.

That's the thing about an artist...no one understands their creations better than them. No one sees what they have envisioned until it is finished. Sometimes, we still do not comprehend the value or the meaning of these masterpieces until we hear the meaning or the stories behind them.

This realization opened my eyes in the mose amazing way. I started seeing works of art everywhere around me...God's unfinished masterpieces.

I began to listen to the stories behind each woman I had the honor of meeting and I started to see their scars as beauty and I understood.

In Ecclesiastes 3 it says, "There is a time for everything,and a season for every activity under the heavens, a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing, a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.'

This verse applies to every woman and man who are incarcerated behind iron bars and honestly to every person who is locked in prisons of their own making.

When a piece of clay is first molded into shape it is then put into the fire so to speak, to make it harder, to strengthen it. Each difficulty and obstacle in our life can strengthen us and give us a purpose like the verse says. What our purpose is, depends on not only our choice but also whether or not we allow our creator to finish the work that was started in us to begin with.

It took me going to prison to really see the beauty I have possessed all along. I have learned that despite my past, in spite of any brokenness, I have a story and I am priceless.

I no longer see the imperfections or flaws in myself or in other people, or at least I try not to see them as negative. Instead, I try to imagine what the big and amazing picture will be when God is finished with his creation. After all, we are all still a work in progress.

Our histories are our story...it has strengthened us for a purpose. The best part is that it gives each of us more value and worth than we can ever understand once we personally know who created us and the love He takes everytime He allows something to shape us.

In His eyes, you are worth far more than gold...you are a priceless masterpiece.