Finding The Best Deals
Sometimes you have to search for the best deals. From a very young age, my mom taught me not to let my eyes get caught up in the front of the store items. While those things sparkle and shine and might be the latest and greatest...much of the time they are over-priced and usually out of our budget range. As we would make our way to the back of the store we'd find...the clearance racks! I can still hear the sound of the metal hooks of the plastic hangers scraping across the metal racks as we swished through garment after garment on the racks...looking for great finds that so far had been overlooked and now marked down. It might've taken a while but we found some of the best deals digging through what others had passed over. In fact, I'm convinced that's why when you compliment a girlfriend on her outfit she will tell you where she got it and how little she paid. Celebrating the discovery of the treasures, once left behind, until you saw their worth.
It reminds me that sometimes we overlook the treasures in others. We don't take the time to dig deeper than what we see to find the real gifts and abilities that people tend to cover up. Or we're just too busy to even look. The barista who froths our favorite coffee blend. The bus driver or teacher. Our co-workers. People we sit near every week in church or see in line at the grocery store. Maybe YOU are feeling overlooked or discarded. Unseen. Doubting that anyone will ever see anything of worth in you.
Listen to how much God decided you are worth in Ephesians 1:4 - 8 (ESV): "Even before He made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in His eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into His own family by bringing us to Himself through Jesus Christ. This is what He wanted to do, and it gave Him great pleasure. So we praise God for the glorious grace He has poured out on us who belong to His dear Son. He is so rich in kindness and grace that He purchased our freedom with the blood of His Son and forgave our sins. He has showered His kindness on us, along with all wisdom and understanding."
God was willing to dig deep to find us. We must be willing to do the same for each other.
Read more devotions written by Denise Harper at Treasured Inside
