The Weekly Word: Never second-best in God’s eyes

By Pastor Matthew Howlett, Charles City First Baptist Church

Sometimes I end up feeling second best. Just before writing my column today, I found out I was a major prize winner. Yes, I will indeed be receiving in the mail in the next few weeks a complete set of Monster Cereal figures.

If you are not sure what these are, they are little plastic figures of the characters Count Chocula, Franken Berry, Boo Berry and the lesser know Fruit Brute, which make a return to the cereal aisle each year around Halloween.

While this is kind of cool and I know I should be grateful, it’s hard to feel like much of a winner when I recall the time my brother won an all-expense-paid trip to England to see one of his favorite bands. It all leaves me feeling second best.

Thankfully, when I get to feeling this way, I am reminded that it’s not about what I receive in this world that matters, what I have or do not have. When I am feeling second best, or that I don’t measure up to others, I remember that the great God of all the universe created me. I am a uniquely created beloved Child of God.

Each one of us was created for a purpose. Each one of us has great value to God, no matter what the world may try to tell us.

In Acts 17:24-25 Luke writes:

“The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else.”

God gives us everything. God created everything including you and me. He has given each of us life and breath to go into the world and do mighty amazing things.

God created us out of love, a love so great that He would send His son into the world. God loved us so much that He had His son become the perfect sacrifice for each of us so that we would not have to suffer the consequences we rightly deserve for our sins.

While we may all at times feel second best or that we do not measure up, we need only remember the great God of all the universe sending His son on our behalf, to be reminded of just how much worth we have to the creator of the universe.