What actually makes someone valuable?

We opened with a question you have answered a hundred times without noticing: what makes someone valuable? Grades? Followers? Being good at something? Genesis says that answer was settled before you ever did anything at all.

God made people in His own image — male and female He created them. That is where our identity, our purpose, and our glory come from. Then Genesis slows down and shows how. Before there was rain, before a single plant had sprung up, before anyone worked the ground, God formed the man from the dust and breathed life into him. You were handmade, and then filled with God’s own breath.

God planted a garden and put the man in it to work it and keep it — real work, handed to someone who already mattered. He set one boundary, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, because even a good gift has a shape. Then God said it was not good for the man to be alone. The man named every animal, and none of them fit, so God made a helper for him — bone of his bone, flesh of his flesh.

Notice the order. God gave the man worth, and then God gave him work. God gives us worth before He gives us work. Adam was God’s worker in the garden; Eve was Adam’s helper; and we are Christ’s workers and helpers in the world. Paul puts it plainly: you are saved by grace through faith, not by works — you are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works.

So your worth is not something you earn, and your work is not a way to make a name for yourself. In Christ you already have both — now you get to use what God gave you to serve Him and love the people around you, every one of them made in His image.

Here is the one worth carrying home: when you are not winning at anything, where do you look for your worth?

Photos by Jayde Keroi, Mike Erskine, and MChe Lee on Unsplash.