Naked numbers
What is a human being worth? Depending on which yardstick you take…
- If you take the chemical elements, it is a few cents.
- If you take regular egg or sperm donations, it is several tens of thousands of dollars.
- If you take the prices for donor organs, it quickly adds up to a few hundred thousand dollars.
- If one takes risk-theoretical concepts, it is 1.72 million euros for men and 1.43 million euros for women (according to Hannes Spenger of the TU Darmstadt).
- If one takes the prices for hormones, protein compounds, etc. in the body, they would have to be produced by a chemical company for over 6 million dollars.
- One can also take the economic-social benefit and the costs for e.g. nursing, education.
Kind of crass to quantify the value of a human being like that, isn’t it. But sometimes we do just that! When an old person dies, it’s not as bad as when a young one dies!? A fetus with Down syndrome* can be aborted, can’t it? In India or China it is often girls who meet this fate, because there they seem to be worth less than boys. A professional soccer player is worth many millions of dollars! An unemployed person from Detroit – nothing!? A soldier who falls in the war is only a number. A refugee who dies at the Mexican Border is an annoying evil. An earthquake victim is a number in last year’s insurance statistics.
Priceless
But behind every number is a human being. A living being with his character, his history, his wishes and dreams, his family and people who love him. NO ONE is just a number in a statistic or worthless! A human being is priceless!
Even though you may feel worthless and abandoned at the moment – you are not! You are valuable in God’s eyes! So valuable that He even gave His only Son for you!
God already knew you when you were not even born:
Even when I took shape in secret, invisible yet, artfully formed in the womb of my mother, I was not hidden from you.
Psalm 139,15
YOU are precious:
What value is there in a sparrow? One can buy two of them for a ridiculous price. Yet not one falls dead to the earth without your father knowing about it. Therefore, do not be afraid! You are worth more to God than a whole flock of sparrows.
Matthäus 10,29 & 31
What is your value?
What does a person gain if the whole world falls to him, but he himself loses his soul? He cannot buy it back again!
Markus 8,36 & 37
If you attach your value to your possessions or to your work or to other people or to your achievements, this will fail sooner or later. Your possessions can be destroyed or taken away. You can lose your job. People can disappoint you. You will grow old and will no longer be able to do things the way a young person could. Ultimately, everything in this world is impermanent.
God is the one who gives you value as His creature, His counterpart, His beloved human being! That is irrevocable! That is valid for eternity!
If you put your trust in God, if you see yourself with His loving eyes, you get new strength and may feel valuable.
God gave Jesus because YOU are worth it!
be blessed!
* A word: I worked for several years in a home for the handicapped and was allowed to get to know many valuable people among the residents (among the staff, too, of course). People with trisomy 21 (Down syndrome), people who were victims of a tick bite (with meningitis) or an accident (paraplegia). These people are not less valuable because they have a disability and cannot do what other people do. “Working” and living with them has been a lot of fun, has shaped me, and in some ways has been very challenging. I have been able to learn a lot from them about happiness, contentment, joy and dealing with a “different” fate! Thank you all!
