As a former teacher, I can recall many playground arguments. They usually went something like this. “My dad’s better than your dad” and the response was, “No, my dad’s better than your dad”. As much as we laugh at this childish banter, we have all been there in some way or another. What were we fighting over? It usually comes down to making sure that we matter. If our dads are the best then we are too!  Every human being needs to know that they matter. The primary message of the Bible speaks to this deep need in each of us. Psalm 139 reminds us that from our very conception in the womb, we mattered to God.

For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made… (Psalm 139:13-14 NIV)

Every life is precious to God. No matter who you are, or what you have been labeled, or what you have experienced, or how you have been treated, your life matters to God. He loves you. He is concerned about you. He wants to bless you. In Psalm 8 the writer is asking God the question do we matter when he says, “When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?” (Psalm 8:3-4). Here is the profound story of Scripture. The same God who created the heavens, created us and we matter to Him. Every one of us. He is no respecter of status or reputation. He’s not swayed by lineage or position, wealth or poverty. “For God so loved the world… ” (John 3:16). And, no place is this more evident than at the cross of Jesus. At the cross, all people are equal. We are equal in guilt, in sin, and in the weight of our rebellion. At the cross, we all need a Savior. And, only at the cross, do we find that Savior, willing to die for all people. Jesus paid it all, and Jesus paid it for all! If you were to stand at the foot of that cross, if you could see the drops of blood as they ran down the tree, it would shout, “Here, your life matters!” So this is the truth. Our Dad is the best because we matter to Him. That’s the truth.