Bar of Iron

A bar of iron worth 1 pound, when wrought into horseshoes, is worth 2 pounds. If made into needles, it is worth 70 pounds. If into penknife blades, it is worth 650 pounds. If into springs for watches, it is worth 50,000 pounds.

What a drilling the poor bar must undergo to be worth this! But the more it is manipulated, the more it is hammered and passed through the fire, and is beaten and pounded and polished, the greater its value.

(This is a quite old comparison using British pound sterling measurements)

The Touch

Twas battered and scarred, and the auctioneer thought it scarcely worth his while to waste

much time on the old violin. But he held it up with a smile:

“What am I biddin’ good folks,” He cried. “Who’ll start the biddin’ for me ? A dollar;” then, “two !

Only two ? Two dollars, and who’ll make it three ? Three dollars once, three dollars twice; going for three — ” But no.

From the room, far back, a gray-haired man came forward and picked up the bow. Then, wiping the dust from the old violin, and tightening the loose strings, he played a melody pure and sweet as carolling angel’s wings.

There’s many a man with life out of tune, who’s battered and scarred, and is auctioned cheap to

the thoughtless crowd, much like the old violin. A mess of potage, a glass of wine, a game, and he travels on. He is going once, and going twice, he’s going and almost gone.

But the Master comes, and the foolish crowd never can quite understand the worth of a soul, and the change that’s wrought by the touch of the Master’s Hand.

Dirty Money

A well known speaker started off his seminar by holding up a $20 bill. In the room of 200, he asked, “Who would like this $20 bill”? Hands started going up.

He said, I am going to give this $20 to one of you but first, let me do this. He proceeded to crumple the dollar bill up. He then asked, “Who still wants it?”

Still the hands were up in the air. Well, he replied, What if I do this? And he dropped it on the ground and started to grind it into the floor with his shoe. He picked it up, now crumpled and dirty. Now who still wants it? Still the hands went into the air.

My friends, you have all learned a very valuable lesson. No matter what I did to the money, you still wanted it because it did not decrease in value. It was still worth $20.

Many times in our lives, we are dropped, crumpled and ground into the dirt by the decisions we make and the circumstances that come our way. We feel as though we are worthless. But no matter what has happened or what will happen, you will never lose your value: dirty or clean, crumpled or finely creased, you are still priceless to your God who sent His son Jesus to die for your sins.

The worth of our lives comes not in what we do or who we know, but by “Who we are loved by”.