Renovating Your MindSýnishorn

One of my daughter Kate’s favorite books is Benjamin’s Box by Melody Carson. It is the story of a boy named Benjamin who lived in Jerusalem during the days of Jesus’ earthly min­istry. As the story goes, Benjamin’s grandfather gave him a treasure box containing only some ordinary straw. When Benjamin’s friend Eli asked him about the straw, Benjamin explained that the “straw came from the bed of a baby who was born in a stable. My grandfather was a shepherd then, and he said the baby would grow up to be king.”[i] Eli laughed as he questioned the significance of the straw and the baby. This sets the stage for the rest of the book, in which Benjamin would go on and col­lect more treasures that are significant to the week of Jesus’ crucifixion such as fur from the donkey Jesus rode in on, a broken cup from the Last Supper, a gambling stone from the guards at the crucifixion, etc. 

This inspired my four-year-old daughter to do something very similar. Much like the reaction Eli had to the straw in Benjamin’s box, many people look at the treasures Kate has collected and dismiss them as being insignificant. In the world’s eyes, daisies from the field she plays in at church, sticks from the park behind our house, rocks and dead leaves along the sidewalk, discarded pieces of paper, used scotch tape, broken rubber bands . . . they are all worthless items that should be thrown away. In the world’s estimation, these things have no value or significance because there is nothing special about them. But in Kate’s eyes, they are all treasures. 

I was thinking about this as I was placing a detached cotton-swab head in her treasure box as she requested. I realized that though I may consider these things to be irrelevant and unimportant, to her they are all very special and significant—just as each one of us is very special and significant to God. The world will often label us as useless, worthless, insignificant, and damaged. It will discard us and toss us aside because we have no value in the world’s system. Yet the Lord says to each one of us (yes, even you): You are special, you are significant, you have a great purpose, you are a new creation, you have been fully restored; in My eyes, you are priceless, and I love you, [insert your name here]. 

The thing we must remember is that we are not to conform to the world’s value system, which says we have to be [fill in the blank] in order to be special. Contrary to what the world says, our value is not measured by how we look, how much money we have, our marital status, our job, our clothes, our car, our education, or our past. Our value is not even determined by what we think of ourselves because of what we have or have not done in our lives. Our value is only determined by who we are in God’s eyes, and He says we are His beloved masterpieces, His precious treasures, His eternal inheritance . . . quite simply, we are the apple of His eye. In the Lord’s value system, we are defined by who we are in Jesus Christ, not who we are in the world. So, believer, remember, you “belong to the Lord your God. . . . [He] has chosen you to be His own special treasure” (Deuteronomy 7:6, NLT).

[i] Melody Carson, Benjamin’s Box (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1997), 10.