The Most Valuable Certificate

Impatient to get though all the paperwork I had to sort through these last few days of school, I tossed large wads into the trash. I had already sorted through my art folders and older business files, so without looking through the individual papers, I tossed away blindly. I already brought home three heavy boxers of files and many folders of artwork—project directions, samples and art my daughter contributed. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with all this stuff in my retirement, but I thought I might teach homeschoolers, so I retained a fraction of what I had.

That day, I felt justified in getting rid of almost everything that remained. Yet, I had forgotten about an important little slip of paper that offered a free facial for a value of $75, which we received for teacher appreciation week. I’d tucked it away, and had forgotten about it until one of the teachers had redeemed the certificate and said the facial was wonderful!

That night I remembered this and searched frantically through the files there, but no certificate. The following day I searched through the files that remained there, once again nothing turned up. I went and asked the secretary and my union rep if either of them had more and discovered they were limited and none remained. On the last day of school, I made one more fruitless effort. I came to the conclusion that I was not to have the free gift given to us. Ok, I could live with that, but I was annoyed with myself.

My first day of retirement was glorious and I didn’t think once about the certificate. The next day I saw an object lesson waving before my eyes. How often do we throw away the most important gift given to humanity? So many people don’t even realize what an important gift they have at their disposal, that of Jesus Christ. He offers us freedom from the power of sin and eternal life. Yet we forget about the significance of His certificate of reconciliation with the Father. Because its free, we might think its worthless and throw it away, just like I did.

Though I am a Christian and have redeemed the gift certificate offered me, I often forget about the power of the Holy Spirit living within me. Just yesterday, I got all bent out of shape because I couldn’t find one of the chapters I had written for my WIP-work in progress. I lost my peace, got angry and threw away the peace of Christ. I spent two hours rewriting it and later discovered I had saved it in the wrong place. I misplaced the power of Jesus Christ living in my life. I tossed it away without a thought, only to realize later how valuable it is—the life of Christ living within me. It's our most precious possession.

To those who don’t know the love of Christ, I ask you to redeem that valuable certificate. Everyone in the world has been given one, and unlike my facial certificate, we can always retrieve it when we need it. To those who know Christ, I ask you to think about the value of knowing Him. He is the most valuable possession in our being. Let’s be more mindful of that when we are tempted to throw away that knowledge.

 I’d love for you to leave a comment and let me know what you think.