Isn’t it interesting how we attach significance to objects? When there is a story attached to them the objects seem to gain a greater significance than they would ordinarily merit – we call it sentimental value.

This mug is a case in point. It was given to me by a good friend. That would make it significant but there is a bigger story behind it (forgive me if you have heard it).

When I was training at Bible College my friend, Steve, and I were chatting about how God had called us to be training as Ministers. I used the following sentence: “It was while David Coffey was my Minister that I felt God’s call to be irresistible.”

Steve knew what I really meant, but he was also sufficiently mischievous to deliberately misunderstand and told a number of our colleagues of how I had been called to be
irresistible. The mocking was good-natured and (if I am honest) I rather liked the epithet!
Later on (I think for a Christmas present) Steve gave me this mug along with a pair of socks that have the same picture and words.

So now this mug is important to me because of who gave it to me, because it makes me smile when I remember the silliness behind it and because I cherish the period in my life that is represented by this mug. (I do have another mug which relates to the same incident that was given to me by my erstwhile colleague, Lynsey, before we became colleagues, but that’s going to remain ‘off tinternet’ – you will have to ask her about it!).

I wonder what objects hold sentimental value to you that far outweighs the actual worth: a family ‘heirloom’? some letters or cards sent by someone you love? photographs?

The wonderful thing is that God has placed immense sentimental value on us. We may feel worthless, morally bankrupt, spiritually impoverished or simply tarnished and ugly but when God looks at us he considers us to be beyond price: worth everything.

Jesus told a parable about a man who found some treasure in a field and went out and sold everything he had in order to buy the field and possess the treasure. I have always thought of it as being about how we should consider being his friends to be worth everything. But what if the man is God and we are the treasure hidden in the field – worth giving everything for!

The Christian symbol (the cross) is more than a badge: it’s a price tag too. Perhaps we should all wear one.

Be blessed, be a blessing.