Have you ever thought about your value as a human being?
We’re all just a bunch of clods...dirt clods.
Then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground….--Genesis 2:7
Even unbelieving evolutionists recognize that when a person dies their body decomposes and eventually becomes...dirt. Perhaps the difference is that the believer acknowledges that the body ‘returns’ to the dust of the ground from which it was 'created.'
Articles have been published in which the physical ingredients of an adult human body were catalogued and measured. They were then given an approximate value based on current prices for the separate components. The totals were always just a few dollars.
Dirt clods.
So, what gives a person value?
There is one ingredient that scientists cannot measure; cannot calculate; cannot really comprehend scientifically. Science can tell us the various chemical components of our physical body, but they have never been able to come up with a recipe to mix all the dry ingredients together, add water, and then produce...life.
We can continue the cycle of reproduction that already exists, but we cannot create. The essence of life is not a dry ingredient that man can manipulate into life.
For that reason, life is valuable.
Long before the New Testament was recorded, before the Law of Moses was given, at the time of Noah, God commanded that man not eat anything with its blood in it. Why?
Life is in the blood.--Genesis 9:4; Leviticus 17:11
The penalty for killing another human was death. Why?
Whoever sheds man’s blood, By man his blood shall be shed,For in the image of God He made man.--Genesis 9:6
God did something quite wonderful when he formed man out of the dust of the ground:
Then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.--Genesis 2:7
It is easy to take life for granted. It is easy to forget that people are not assigned value based on human perception. Value is assigned by God.
We recognize how often violent men display their lack of regard for life when someone is killed. Most of us would never think of murdering someone. However, do we ever treat people as insignificant or practically invisible? Do we devalue people on the basis of their politics, their religion, their personality, their perceptions of life, their sin? Are there people that we simply ‘write off’ because they are not worth the effort?
We are more than ‘dirt clods’ because God made each of us valuable when he gave us life. And then he did something unthinkable, something beyond imagination, something marvelous: He gave His only Son as a sacrifice for our sins so we could live with Him forever.
Your true value is not found in human accomplishments, material possessions, or your glowing personality. Your value has little to do with you. You are valuable...
...because God has made you in His image...
...because he has given you life...
...because He has offered life everlasting to your soul.
Value life!
Mark Stinnett
June 29, 2025
