The Coke Bottle

     This is a lonely little Coke bottle. His worth is 10 cents. Back In the olden days you'd buy one of these, pay an extra dime for the core charge, and after drinking, return it empty and get your dime back. I know we still do that but what was different back then was instead of crushing it, the bottler would wash it, refill, and sell the same bottle again. Full of Coke of course. 

     I made a flower display this last year, almost a year ago actually, with 21 Coke bottles in a wood crate. Each bottle had one rose. Each rose signified one year of marriage. And each of those bottles is worth 10 cents.

     You see, the worth of the bottle never changes no matter what is in it. Whether Coke or dirt or marbles or diamonds. Clean or dirty it doesn't matter.

     We are like that bottle. This I believe is the single hardest thing for man or woman to 'get'. God has placed a value upon us. Not a nickel or dime, but a measure without measure. A value of infinite value. Maybe that's why we can't grasp it. Before I breathed my first breath I had God's greatest worth. When I had done nothing to get it I already had it. When I have done every thing to lose it I still have it.

     That's the thing. The value isn't determined by me. God decided He wanted me so He made me. From that first moment the value was already decided. The payment was already known, the cost of His Son.

     We are not far from the 2000 year anniversary of that payment. So when I raced my car down 25th street by the airport at 90mph my value stayed the same. When I stole, when I cheated, when I watched on my screen as women defiled themselves for my pleasure, my value did not change. When I pay my tithes and help another, or shout rude suggestions thru my windshield, or whatever it is that I do, there is nothing, not a single thing I can do that will change the intrinsic value I have in Christ. 

     This is not a license to steal. It is for my freedom. It is the proverbial 10,000 steps away from God but 1 step back. I know what I did wrong and I feel so bad about it. I know I'm not worthy back in God's graces but I am. I always am. No matter what I've done I'm always welcome. Every time God says let's begin again. Or, do you remember where we had got to before, son? Let's continue on from there. God is so great! God is so merciful! His only motivation toward us, toward me, is always love.