Some people enjoy being photographed. They like what they see in the picture or don’t care. Others prefer to ignore what they look like and don’t welcome pictorial reminders. There’s something much more important than the size of our nose or the smudge on it, however.
One summer as church groups traveled home after a week of camp, female campers from one church started talking about another camper, a particularly self-confident girl, referring to her as “Barbie.” The church sponsor pointed out that calling the girl “Barbie” wasn’t kind, but they informed the sponsor that the girl told them she saw herself as a Barbie. Well, okay.
How should you see yourself? You’re a person of value created in the image of God, and Jesus Christ died on the cross for you–so you’re important. Your greatest value, however, lies in what you mean to Christ and what your position is in Christ, not in what you think you are or can do on your own. This is both humbling and encouraging. Recognizing that we are weak humans with a propensity for sin is humbling. Realizing that our inabilities and weaknesses don’t affect God’s love for us and that he can work in spite of us is encouraging. He uses us best when we recognize our own worthlessness and look to him for strength and opportunity to be used.
Recognition of the true reason for value should produce an appreciation within us for each soul with whom we come in contact. Every person is created in the image of God, and Christ died for all people. Even camp Barbie has worth and value. We don’t know what she viewed as her value that summer or what circumstances she came from or would go back to, but none of this negates her value. She was in the right place that week to grow spiritually and probably did.
The prophet Samuel’s mother Hannah was well-loved by her husband Elkanah long before Samuel was born, but she suffered under the ridicule of Elkanah’s other wife Peninnah who had borne several children. In her grief and vexation, Hannah turned to God and begged for a child. God wants us to turn to him with our burdens and tears. He heard Hannah’s prayer, and he gave her Samuel. When Hannah returned to the house of the LORD at Shiloh with the young Samuel, she said to Eli, “For this child I prayed, and the LORD has granted me my petition that I made to him. Therefore I have lent him to the LORD. As long as he lives, he is lent to the LORD.”
The very next verse begins another prayer of Hannah’s, one which was probably prayed publicly and evidences the humility with which we should all see ourselves: “’Talk no more so very proudly, let not arrogance come from your mouth. . . . The bows of the mighty are broken, but the feeble bind on strength. . . . The LORD makes poor and makes rich; he brings low and he exalts. He raises up the poor from the dust; he lifts the needy from the ash heap to make them sit with princes and inherit a seat of honor. . . . He will guard the feet of his faithful ones, but the wicked shall be cut off in darkness, for not by might shall a man prevail’”(1 Samuel 2:1-10).