What Are You Worth?

I have been told, that if we were to break down a human body into its basic chemical components (mostly water), it would be worth about 94¢. I'm not sure how that has been affected by inflation since then, but I think it is safe to say that, from a chemical standpoint, we are each worth less than what most of us earn in an hour--certainly less than one week's pay. Of course, no chemist could assemble a working human being, no matter how many chemicals he tried to use. We are much more valuable than the sum of our parts.
Some years ago, we had a young woman that attended our church that liked to wear a lot of jewelry. I don’t think that there is anything wrong with wearing jewelry (although there is a scripture that might contraindicate my opinion—but I really think that Paul wasn’t trying to say that wearing jewelry is a sin, just that there are other things that are much more important), but this seemed somewhat excessive. One time she and I were talking, and she said something about her jewelry, and I took it upon myself to ask her about why she wore so much—although I was a little more discreet in the way I asked (maybe not a lot more discreet, but a little). I don’t remember how I phrased the question, but I tried to do it in such a way that it didn’t imply that I thought she wore too much, because I didn’t want her to feel defensive about it. As it turns out, I was considerably less clever than I thought I was, because she did end up getting defensive about it, but I got a sense of the why in spite of myself. It seemed to me that she had come to the realization that people paid more attention to her when she wore jewelry, and more jewelry meant more attention. She had gotten her sense of self-worth wrapped up in her jewelry. When I realized that, I backed off the issue, and tried to soothe her ruffled feathers, but I may not have done a very good job of that, either (I have since heard that I tried to talk her into selling her jewelry and giving the money to the church—I did no such thing, but, she may have felt that I was suggesting that, and told somebody who told somebody…). For what it’s worth, I really don’t care how much jewelry one wears, but I do worry sometimes about what it says about one when one wears so much jewelry.
Still, this is something that has plagued people for just about as long as there have been people. In First Samuel 1, we learn about Hannah, who is distraught because she has no children. Her husband, Elkanah, asks her if he is not better to her than ten sons, and, in truth, takes very good care of her, because he loves her very much, with or without children. This would seem to be a common thought amongst Old Testament women: Jacob’s wives, Leah and Rachel, competed see who could produce more children. In both cases, the woman’s sense of self-worth was wrapped up in being a mother; being a good wife wasn’t enough. Even today, people sometimes get their sense of self-worth from things that really shouldn’t have anything to do with it. I mentioned jewelry before, but there are other things. Some people think that they need a spouse to be whole (of course we know that no single man is complete, but once he gets married, then he is finished). Some still think that they need to have children. There is nothing wrong with wearing jewelry, being married, or having children, but, a person’s sense of self-worth should be based on the fact that your Creator made you, He loves you, and He gave Himself for you, to redeem you from the world. No one, not spouse, nor children, nor parents, will ever love you more than He does.