Back in 2018, Banksy’s ‘Girl with Balloon’ painting sold for $NZ 1.9 million at auction. Minutes after it was sold an alarm sounded and a hidden shredder inside the frame started to shred the painting. Suddenly, the art was flawed, broken, ruined. The piece of art was retitled, ‘Love is in the Bin’. Strangely, the buyer went ahead with the purchase despite the fact that the creation was damaged believing that there was still value in the painting.

Paul repeatedly tells the Corinthians, “you were bought with a price…” someone thought you were worth purchasing. Someone thought you were worth paying for. Your price? The life of God himself. Peter says this:

Your life is a journey you must travel with a deep consciousness of God. It cost God plenty to get you out of that dead-end, empty-headed life you grew up in. He paid with Christ’s sacred blood, you know. He died like an unblemished, sacrificial lamb. And this was no afterthought. Even though it has only lately—at the end of the ages—become public knowledge, God always knew he was going to do this for you. It’s because of this sacrificed Messiah, whom God then raised from the dead and glorified, that you trust God, that you know you have a future in God. (1 Peter 1:18-21 MSG)

This was no after-thought. God wasn’t in an auction being pushed up by other bidders resulting in an exaggerated price-tag. “God always knew he was going to do this for you.” You are infinitely valuable and precious. No one pranked God with a shredder when it came to your purchase. God already knew that your life was shredded, broken and in pieces when he chose to give everything to save you. You are worth that much to Him.