Our commonality with the ‘Inverted Jenny’
This postage stamp is known as the “Inverted Jenny.” Printed in 1918, the Jenny was an embarrassing mistake for the U.S. Postal Service in trying to trumpet their air mail achievements. The stamp, worth 24 cents then, is worth around $200,000 on today’s market.
Our lives are fraught with error, mistakes and stumbles. As worshippers, many times we feel that we are simply useless for kingdom purposes. But there is great hope. Even though we make many mistakes, and we are so full of pride, arrogance and bleak humanity, we are of such great worth to the Lord Jesus – very much like the “Inverted Jenny.”
The secret in the “Inverted Jenny” is the “law of supply and demand.” There are around 100 of these stamps in existence as it was caught extremely early and after someone bought a sheet of 100, they destroyed the rest and reprinted. So, collectors wanted them and the market bears few. Though there are many of us, we are each unique and have a unique testimony for the Master. Scripture tells us, “For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith,” Rom. 12:3.
So it is a balance of understanding our value, yet understanding that the value comes from the Creator, not because of something we do, or who we are. We are so much like the “Inverted Jenny.”
The poem, “You are who you are for a reason,” by Russell Kelfer as published in Rick Warren’s book, The Purpose Driven Life, sums it up – by the way, you can sing this to the tune of “Redeemed, How I Love to Proclaim It,” then sing the chorus of that hymn with these verses interposed:
You are who you are for a reason.
You’re part of an intricate plan.
You’re a precious and perfect unique design,
Called God’s special woman or man.
(Redeemed, Redeemed . . . )
You look like you look for a reason.
Our God made no mistake.
He knit you together within the womb,
You’re just what He wanted to make.
(Redeemed, Redeemed . . . )
The parent you had were the ones he chose,
No matter how you may feel,
They were custom-designed with God’s plan in mind,
And they bear the Master’s seal.
(Redeemed, Redeemed . . . )
No, that trauma you faced was not easy.
And God wept when it hurt you so;
But it was allowed to shape your heart
So that into His likeness you’d grow.
(Redeemed, Redeemed . . . )
You are who you are for a reason,
You’ve been formed by the Master’s rod
You are who you are, beloved,
Because there is a God.
A reported, well-known speaker was at a college chapel service, and in his closing prayer he stated, “We are worthless … .” As he was finishing the prayer, he heard a rustling sound and opened one eye to see the president of the Christian college standing up and interrupting the speaker in mid-prayer to say to the students, “I am sorry to interrupt, but ladies and gentlemen, today’s speaker, though his heart is in the right place, is so very wrong. We are unworthy, but we are of great worth in that Jesus died for our sins.”
God is absolutely crazy about you. (John Francis is the worship specialist for the Missouri Baptist Convention and produces MoWorship, a monthly worship podcast available at www.mobaptist.org/worship.)