Undiminished

When I saw it with a corner of my eye, trapped in the crack of the pavement, I didn’t think it was worth losing my step, bending over to pick it up.

It’s just a penny, I thought.  Practically worthless.

But, for some inexplicable reason, I slowed down and stopped, bending over to scoop it up between my thumb and forefinger. It was so covered with grime I almost dropped it, frustrated that now I have to find a place to wash my hands.

The helplessness and the powerlessness of the coin, its silent testimony on the witness stand of the palm of my hand, awakened something forgotten, buried inside the cracked pavement of my soul.

Once you were new and shiny, desirable and valuable. But now you are old and beat up.  Probably run over many times.  Discolored from exposure to ruthless elements. If not lost, never to be missed, most likely ignored, not worth bending over to pick up by your previous owner. Or countless other passers-by.  Passed over again and again…. Are you truly as worthless as you look?

And yet, if I focused, if I pored over its bruised shape, I could still discern the face and the inscription on it, nearly but not quite obliterated from its surface.  

And if I decided to take into a bank, it would still carry its full value issued by the authority higher than it knows.

Despite its condition, despite its look, despite the brutality of life it has faced, its intrinsic value, bestowed by the governing authority that made it, remained undiminished.

Undiminished.  

“Whose likeness and inscription is this?” Matthew 22:20

“Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness.” Genesis 1:26