And Zacchaeus stood, and said unto the Lord; Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken any thing from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold. And Jesus said unto him, This day is salvation come to this house, forsomuch as he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.
Luke 19:8-10
Howard Carter was hired by the amateur Egyptologist Lord Carnarvon in 1907 to search for relics of the pharaohs that had not yet been discovered. After World War I ended, they began working in the Valley of the Kings. By 1922, Carnarvon had become discouraged by the lack of progress, but Carter persuaded him to fund one more year of exploration. Not long after, they found the tomb of King Tutankhamun with a vast trove of treasures left undisturbed for thousands of years. The relics from that tomb remain some of the most popular archaeological finds ever made. Millions of people around the world have visited museums and exhibitions to see them. Carnarvon was willing to spend the equivalent of tens of millions of dollars in today’s money because he valued the treasure so highly.
The world often tells us or makes us feel that we have no value. Yet while we may not matter to them, we do matter to God a great deal. “Since thou wast precious in my sight, thou hast been honourable, and I have loved thee: therefore will I give men for thee, and people for thy life” (Isaiah 43:4). The simplest way to begin to grasp our value in God’s eyes is to look at Jesus. He came into to the world, not because we deserved to be saved, but because God wanted to find that which was lost and gone away. We do not ever need to fear that our lives have no meaning or value. Jesus left Heaven and came to find us because we matter so much to Him.
