Ok so these two pictures aren’t really all that clear but in person these paintings were quite tremendous! The color, texture and clarity of the paintings were definitely of fine quality. They were both signed by the artist and perhaps they are of great worth. I’m not an art critic so I’m honestly not all that sure.

I recently had a chance to sit down and listen to a pastor share a story about these two paintings. He said – Imagine that you have a choice to earn $100,000 by simply choosing one of these two paintings and hanging it in your living room for three months. 

Now if you’re anything like me, you’re already thinking what’s the catch, but in this story there’s no catch. So just play along for a while and suspend your disbelief if you will. So take a look at these two paintings again, and make your choice.

Which did you choose? Most in the group of which I was a part chose the one on the right. It looked, at least in person, more “professional” in quality. But I’ve never really been all that normal, so as you probably guessed I chose the one on the left. There was just something about it that caught my eye.

Now imagine for a moment that this painting was the one you chose. As you picked it up and decided where in your living room you would hang it, the wealthy man who made the original offer had one more thing to add. Now that you’ve made your selection, I’m going to go and burn the other painting. Since it wasn’t chosen I’m putting all of my value in the one you chose. So he takes the second painting and throws it into a fire where it’s burned up completely.

Now think about this for a minute. What if you were the painting on the left. Most of us are pretty ordinary, almost amateurs at times. We don’t have the best composition or quality to our lives. We mess up and sometimes scribble outside the lines. But the second painting, the one that was destroyed, let’s imagine that one was Jesus. His clarity is exquisite. He is perfect. The colors don’t blot or bleed together. There is perfect definition and his design is without flaw.

The act of putting all of the value in the amateur painting isn’t all that far-fetched if you really think about it. This is exactly what God did with you and me. He had a choice to make – us or His Son. And He chose us! He was willing to let us receive the full value of being part of His collection of masterpiece works. And by doing this He cast His own Son away. Gone. He was put in a pile to be discarded and at times forgotten.

Today I hope you remember that you hold much greater value than a gift of $100,000. You are so valuable that God was willing to give His own Son for you. He traded Jesus for you! You can’t get much greater value than that. Take a look in the mirror and know that you are a masterpiece work of the greatest artist of all time. The one who paints the colors of a rainbow and the shades of red in the morning sunrise is the same artist who formed and fashioned you in His image.