What Is Our Value

The Spirit of God has made me; the breath of the Almighty gives me life. – Job 33:4

Jeb slipped a hand full of nails from his tool belt, placing a couple in his mouth and balancing the rest on the roof. Who said the average guy couldn’t put on a new roof. The timing might be a little longer, but he’d studied his home improvement books and felt confident he could manage the task.

Taking one of the nails from his mouth and then pulling his hammer from the leather belt strap, he meticulously placed the nail. Jeb drew back to hit the nail. The hammer came bounding downward slamming the side of his hand. From this moment on, Jeb’s stand on the roof became a comic relief. Instinctively throwing his hammer to side, he spit the remaining nail from his mouth onto the roof. His hand throbbed as he brought it close to his chest, massaging at the pain.

One missed step led to his tripping and sliding in a downward spiral toward the edge of the roof. He clawed at the slick roof as he tried to sink his shoes into the tarpaper for some sort of grip. Jeb slipped down the roof and over the edge, guttering and all, landing in the azalea bushes below. As he crawled from the bushes, the realization of his accident hit home. I could have been killed.

We frequently take unnecessary risks with this precious thing called life. Sometimes we seek a thrill while at other times we, like Jeb, seek to do things on our own. The value of our lives only seems to come into focus when we reach middle age. Our children think they are invincible and immortal, never considering the consequence of their play. However, once we cross over the 40 mark, suddenly life resonates and we realize how tediously we balance in the scheme of life. Perhaps we lose a parent or grandparent – maybe even a childhood friend. Worse yet, the lose of a child; one way or the other, reality sinks in and the price on our life rises and falls like the stock market on a volatile day.

God created us individually and each with a plan and a purpose. Learning where our place is in the life can sometimes be a difficult feat. For the few who seriously evaluate their lives and seek their place, more times than not, they end up at the feet of the Savior. We cannot truly search our souls without coming to some realization of the higher power who created us. To many, this lifesaving revelation changes them from the inside out. The Spirit of God has made us and His breath gives us our precious gift of life. Don’t take it for granted. Start now to inwardly access this life we have been freely given. The Father waits patiently.

Prayer: Precious God, Creator and Giver of life, walk beside us as we seek our purpose.