As a novice summer construction worker in my high school days, I had a frustrated foreman tell me, “Boy, you aren’t worth a plug nickel!”
I’m still not sure what a plug nickel is, but I knew then that a nickel wasn’t worth much. Was he right about me? I certainly knew little about the work I was attempting, and I was skinny and weak and unaccustomed to long, hard days in the sun. But not worth a nickel?
My guess is: you’ve been told the same. Maybe not with the same words, but somebody (probably recently) found some way to make you wonder about your worth. It doesn’t take much to create that self-doubt. At times, our failures stack up like a mountain of minus signs, subtracting from our self-esteem until just a zero remains. If you are wondering about your worth today, please read on.
Value for an object (or person) is elusive and subjective. Something (or someone) may actually be worth far more than its face value. People are like that. And sometimes so is a nickel.
In 2007, an unnamed California collector paid $5 million for a 5 cent coin. It was one of just five Liberty Head nickels minted illegally in 1913. Its worth is a product of its rarity and of a collector’s desire for it.
So is yours. By our culture’s standards, you may not have accomplished much. Maybe you never made great grades. Maybe you can’t run fast or throw a ball far. The letters “CEO” may never appear after your name. Failed marriages may litter your past.
Those things, however, do not decide your worth! Your value is determined by what someone is willing to pay for you, and Jesus Christ paid for you with the ultimate price – his very life. “It was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ,” (1 Peter 1:18-19).
You are extremely valuable. Worth far more than a plug nickel, even more than a million-dollar nickel! No matter what anyone says, you have great worth – and tremendous potential.
The Great Collector says so. Don’t give up on yourself; he hasn’t. He wants to add you to his collection of precious people. That is certainly something to be thankful for.

-A Word from Williams Road is provided by the Williams Road Church.