"Your life is a journey you must travel with a deep consciousness of God. It cost God plenty to get you out of that dead-end, empty-headed life you grew up in. He paid with Christ’s sacred blood...And this was no afterthought … God always knew he was going to do this for you..." - 1 Peter 1:18-20 (The Message)

Imagine for a moment a crumpled bit of paper by the side of the road. It's been spat on, stepped on, torn, ground in the dirt. How much would you be willing to pay for that piece of paper? Chances are, if you're a sane person, you'll say, "not a dime!" That paper's worthless and no good for anything but the trash can.

However, imagine if someone (clearly, someone insane!) came along and offered you ten million dollars to save it from the scrapheap. That sorry-looking piece of paper might still look the same on the outside, but suddenly your view of it might change. Suddenly, that scrap of paper might just be worth something, all because of what someone was willing to pay for it.

Maybe you've known what it's like to be that little scrap of paper – used, broken, and down-trodden. And maybe you're still struggling today with thoughts about your worth.

"Am I really worth that much?" you ask yourself. "I don't feel like I'm worth that at all!"

The good news is that, while our thoughts about ourselves might fluctuate according to what kind of day we've had, our worth isn't tied to how we feel. Our value as a person is forever and inextricably tied to the blood of Jesus Christ.

God was willing to pay for our lives with the blood of his beloved Son and give value to us in the process. The thought of this still blows me away. Crumpled scrap of paper though we might be, it's amazing to know that Someone was willing to pay that extraordinary price for something seemingly not worth saving at all.

Lord, thank you once again that you rescued me out of my dead-end, empty-headed life and that you paid for me with Christ's blood – not as an afterthought, but as something you had always known you were going to do for me. Amen.