In 2012, a 19-year-old man from Washington state named Dakoda Garren was charged with stealing a rare coin collection worth at least $100,000. After Garren had completed some part-time work for a woman living north of Portland, the woman reported that her family coin collection was missing. Her collection included a variety of rare and valuable coins, including Liberty Head quarters, Morgan dollars, and other coins dating back to the early 1800s.

Initially, Garren denied any involvement, claiming that the police didn’t have any evidence against him. But then he started spending the coins at face value, apparently unaware of the coins’ worth. He and his girlfriend paid for movie tickets using quarters worth between $5 and $68. Later on the same day, they bought some local pizza with rare coins, including a Liberty quarter that may be worth up to $18,500.

In the same way, we dishonor other people (such as our spouse, our friends, our children, even our enemies) when we treat them as cheap objects. They should be treated according to the value God has placed on them. God’s value on every human is placed higher than any other animal, plant or inanimate object on earth. He created man in His likeness – His image.

If you’ve ever heard the saying about a child, “He’s the spitting image of his father,” you know and understand that child looks and acts much like his father. God says this about you and every other man, woman, and child that has ever lived – in and outside of the womb. When we disrespect another person or treat them with disregard we are no different than the young man in the story above. Our actions are criminal in God’s eyes and according to His statutes and commands.

Likewise, when you treat yourself with less respect and value than God has conferred upon you, you are not only trivializing your worth, you are devaluing God’s Word and debasing His value of who you are. You are not a cheap object. You are His prize possession. God values you more than anything else in His creation.

You are not an everyday, run of the mill, twenty-five cent piece. You are worth many times more than that Liberty head quarter. In fact money cannot purchase your value. The people you come in contact with every day of your life hold the same value to God. You do not desire to be treated as a cheap object. Why should we go around treating others that way?

God is an awesome God. He knit you together in your mother’s womb to be a person of great value. So great a value that He created you in His own image. Do you know someone you can tell today that they are the spitting image of their father – their Heavenly Father?

I believe this about you, you must be of great value, because in you I see the image of your Father.