To truly love someone means we place a high value upon their existence.
Unfortunately, sometimes we revert to the "bargain rack" version of love when dealing with one another. By this I mean that some of us tend to ask a lot of others while ourselves giving as little as possible. Some of us feel that others often treat us that way. Some of us feel that way about ourselves.
That's just not how God sees us. And since God is smarter than anyone else, it would behoove us to adopt the Lord's point of view about our own worth, and the worth of other people.
Don't get my wrong. I LOVE a good clearance sale. I treat bargain shopping as an olympic event, and I always go for the gold. When it comes to the purchase of things, trying to get the most I can out of the money I spend just makes good sense.
But even when it comes to material possessions some things are just worth paying more money for. As a matter of simple economics, two main factors determine an item's worth: it's rarity and how much someone is willing to pay for it (aka supply and demand). I once almost "bought" a ring with a retail price of $120 for no cost using my smart shopper points, simply so that I could have the satisfaction of saying I got something that expensive for free. Even that much of a deal held no value for me, because my wedding rings are the only jewelry I ever wear on my fingers. On the other hand, I would pay $120 for a bottle of water in the dessert if it was the only one left and I hadn't had a drink in a day and a half.
As children of God, we meet and exceed both the supply and demand criteria for value. In terms of rarity, we are all one of a kind. And in terms of the price one is willing to pay for us- well, Christ left all of the benefits of Heaven so that he could become a nothing, a nobody in earth's eyes. Then he gave his own life in the most demeaning, painful way in order to secure an eternal inheritance for those of us who would receive it. There could be no higher price for our true freedom, and yet nothing else would suffice.
1 John 4:10 puts it this way:
"This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins."
Christ paid it all for us. And Christ would have given just as much to save even one of us. How's that for a great value?