[347 words]
When it is first printed a $100 bill is crisp and clean and you can take that bill and buy $100 dollars worth of merchandise. That bill will then pass through many different hands in the next 15 years, the expected life of that bill. The bill will become crumpled, worn, wrinkled, possibly torn, and will most likely have traces of feces, cocaine, animal DNA, food, and more than 100 different strains of bacteria by the end of its useful existence. Even near the end, the last person that is given that bill will gladly take it and can use that damaged worn-out, disgusting, $100 bill and purchase $100 dollars worth of merchandise. Even though it is in bad shape that bill still has value and is useful to us.
As a human, I came into this world crisp and new. As my life progresses I will pick up a few wrinkles, a few tears. I make mistakes and bad choices, I sin. Yet to God, I still have the same value I had when I was born. No matter the life I have chosen, no matter the sins I have committed, God still wants me! God wants all of us to come back to Him so He can make us new again. God calls all humankind to repentance and reconciliation.
“The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise, as some understand slowness. Instead He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).
“Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who submit to or perform homosexual acts, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor verbal abusers, nor swindlers, will inherit the Kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Cor. 6:9-11).
Brad Tolbert
Monticello church of Christ
Monticello, AR