Full Price

Saturday at 5:00 a.m., my alarm jolted me into consciousness.  It was our yard sale day.  We had sorted through our belongings for months as had our son and his wife, and now it was time to let it all go.  For us, it was less about making money and more about simplifying our lives and making more room in this house that we are now sharing.

So, while it was still dark and the grass was covered in dew, my son and I made multiple trips from the basement to the front yard, carrying tables, boxes, furniture, and bags.  We woke up the other adult members of the family after the sun came up to help organize our wares and make sure we hadn't forgotten to price anything.

Since my husband and I have moved numerous times in our lives, we've had a few sales like this, and they all play out the same way.  We price things, and then all the shoppers proceed to offer much less than the number on the tag, even if we felt it was a low price in the first place.  Item after item disappears into strangers' cars for a fraction of what we originally spent.  

You could buy a brand new item from a local store and put it immediately into your yard sale with the receipt attached, but nobody would pay the price for it that you spent just an hour before. The mere fact that someone owned it first devalues it in the eyes of the buyer. It's like they always say that when you buy a new car, it depreciates the moment you drive off the dealer's parking lot.

As I counted the money that evening to be divided between the two couples, I thought about the devaluing of those pre-owned items, and then my mind skipped to the price that was paid for us.  Father God sent His precious only son, Jesus, to pay a cost for the world that cannot be fully comprehended by any of us. 

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 says, "Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's."

Acts 20:28 says, "Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood."

Before we belonged to Jesus, we were slaves to sin, so sin was our owner.  I wanted to sell the items in my sale, but I'm sure the enemy didn't want to give up his claim on any of us. However, rather than offering a cut-rate price to redeem us from Satan's clutches, Jesus paid full price.  He found us so valuable that He gave up His own life to purchase ours. In His eyes, the fact that we were "pre-owned" didn't diminish our value at all.  So when you are having difficult days, when you find it hard to like yourself, when you are struggling because you think that you don't measure up - remember that God doesn't see you as second-hand yard sale junk, but as His invaluable purchase, His child, His precious one.