MVP

      As many of you know I am back in Columbus for this season and am thoroughly enjoying the incredibly rich times with the friends and family that surround me here. For the first time I am working a full-time 8-5 job as a caregiver/office assistant for a care-giving agency. I am also happy to be the newest resident at the Puttick household and blame the wonderful folks here for my inability to get anywhere on time or get anything done. (I always find myself caught in long conversations).
     One of the highlights of my week is being able to return as a volunteer coach with my brothers Stephen and Peter for the Special Olympic basketball season. This past week one of my favorite athletes Gabe (am I allowed to have favorites?) came up to me and asked if another athlete named Natalie still came to basketball (I've changed the names). I told him I hadn't seen her in weeks and asked why. He said she always told him he lost and that it was his fault because he was a loser (she is known to be a bit of a bully).
        "Gabe" I said looking into his eyes, " you are not a loser, you are my MVP!"
After a blank stare in response I asked, "do you know what MVP means?"
     "No" he said.
"It means most valuable player" I responded.
     "What does va-valable mean?" Gabe asked working to pronounce the new word.
"It means you are the most important, the best, and that we could not play well without you," I said.
      Gabe gave me a shy smile and he said, "ok!"
"So remember," I said, "You are my MVP!"

     Later Father reminded me that I am His MVP (we all are) and that just like Gabe I don't understand what valuable means.
      My understanding of value is often based on how expensive something is or as Skye Jethani wrote in The Divine Commodity that "value is found only in something's immediate usefulness, in its ability to satisfy our immediate desire."
    My understanding of my value to God is similar, often based on how much He paid for me (Jesus' death on the cross), how useful I can be in serving Him, or how devoted in worship I am to Him. But what if He values me not because of what it cost to save me or because of what I did, do, or can do for Him, but solely because I am His and because He created me? I am valuable because I am His.....His treasured possession.
 
    As I ask God, "what does valuable mean?" He begins to show glimpses of what my value to Him is and how He treasures me. Then the scary part comes, I realize that He also highly values and treasures everyone I interact with. I can no longer view others the same with this understanding. How can I judge, snub, or ignore another person if I know how valuable they are to God? How intrinsically valuable they are because they are His? So with this awareness I am learning how to respond to the client who is anxious about her failing sight knowing that she is highly valued by God, or to the client dying of Lou Gehrigs disease who I know is God's treasured possession, or to the Special Olympic athlete who believes haunting lies knowing he is cherished by God.
        So like Gabe I continue to ask Father, "what does valuable mean?"
 I can also ask, "What does it mean to be highly valued by you? To be treasured by you?"
And finally,  "How does knowing that truth change the way I relate to you and those around me?"
    Then I wait in great anticipation to hear His response to my questions.