Irreplaceable

My son has a raggedy old stuffed rabbit, Blue Bunny. His teachers gave it to him right around the time his sister was born. He doesn't carry it with him everywhere he goes like Linus with his blanket, but it is his longest standing ("and most valuable") little friend.

There have been times when we almost left him at this or that event. It would have been a cause for distress for sure, unthinkable to leave without him. The funny thing is this worn stuffed animal had virtually no perceived value outside of its relation to my son. If he left it on the steps somewhere and some other little boy came across him, it wouldn't be like finding a diamond earring or an ipad. You couldn't resell it on ebay or trade it for anything at school, because its value is that assigned by the little boy to whom it is priceless. But if I was a janitor cleaning up the auditorium after a dance recital and he was on the steps, he would have most likely been picked up and thrown in the garbage, regarded as trash.

Blue Bunny is valuable to my boy. How much more valuable is my boy to me? Not monetarily (he costs me way more than he brings in). Not by virtue of his labor (he doesn't even pick up after himself!). Not by anything he has done (though he is cute). He is valuable, irreplaceable, priceless, to me because his is my son. I love him not because of what he does or doesn't do, but who he is to me. And if anyone ever tried to hurt him, abuse him, violate him....well, like most parents, I can't imagine anything more painful. As a father, it is my job, my duty, to protect him and my daughter from predators who would do them harm. Child abusers, perverts, and traffickers who use people to satisfy their own selfish desires and prey on the vulnerable bring on themselves a harsh judgment, a millstone for the neck. It is a dark underworld in which they move, a world which hides from light because of the evil of their ways.

Before I think myself somehow above those who do such things, I am reminded of a parable:

"The Lord sent Nathan to David, and when he came to him, he said, 'Tell me how you judge this case: In a certain town there were two men one rich, the other poor.' The rich man had flocks and herds in great numbers. But the poor man had nothing at all except one little ewe lamb that he had bought.  He nourished her, and she grew up with him and his children. Of what little he had she ate; from his own cup she drank; in his bosom she slept; she was like a daughter to him. Now a visitor came to the rich man, but he spared his own flocks and herds to prepare a meal for the traveler who had come to him: he took the poor man's ewe lamb and prepared it for the one who had come to him." David grew very angry with that man and said to Nathan, "As the LORD lives, the man who has done this deserves death! He shall make fourfold restitution for the lamb because he has done this and was unsparing." Then Nathan said to David, "You are the man!" (2 Sam 12:1-6)

David, a noble king, one "after God's own heart" had sunk to a new low. He had lusted in his heart after another man's wife, took her, got her pregnant, got the husband killed, then tried to cover up the whole affair. He had no regard for her value outside of what she afforded him, which was a moment of pleasure, of ownership. What he had done was evil in God's sight (2 Sam 12:9). And yet when Nathan the prophet relays the story of the ewe lamb stolen and slaughtered, David calls for the death of the man, not realizing the man he condemns to death...is him!

When we disregard the God-given dignity and worth of human beings--God's children--using them for our own selfish purposes and throwing them in the proverbial trash after we are through, we commit serious sin, offense against the Creator, the Father of those children. We put millstones around our very own necks. Lest we think this is reserved for those who run human trafficking rings or for child abusers, hold the mirror up:

• Ever hooked up (using other people for sexual pleasure with no commitment and no regards for their well being) with someone?

• Ever told someone what they wanted to hear to get them into bed with you?

• Ever indulged in online pornography?

• Ever looked at a woman--another man's wife, a father's daughter--with lust in your heart?

No? Let me answer for myself then:

Aye.
Aye.
Aye.
Aye.

I deserve death for my past transgression, that should themselves not be minimized. And yet there is one who ransomed me from death. "O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!" (Rom 7:24-25)

Whenever I see Blue Bunny sitting all raggedy in the corner of my son's bed, I am reminded that the stuffed animal may not be much to look at, may be unwashed and might even blend in with the trash in an alleyway...yet, he is beloved by my son.

When I look at my son, I see my own flesh and blood, though someone who is not his father may not see him this way, may not treat him the way I treat him, though he is beloved by me.

When the Father sees me, he sees his very own. "Come now, let us set things right," says the Lord: though your sins be like scarlet, they may become white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they may become white as wool." (Is 1:18). He washes me clean in the blood of his very own, his only begotten son, his one and only, his beloved!

A debt never able to be repaid.

A value never to be understated.