I read a story about a man who inherited a blanket. After his grandmother died and his family members finished “pillaging” her house, he went to sift through what remained. Among her possessions was a dingy blanket no one wanted. He recalled his grandmother had used it for a birthing bed when one of the cats had kittens.

He took it home and stowed it in the closet. The blanket was mostly forgotten until the night he was watching Antiques Roadshow. Someone presented a bonafide Navajo blanket that appraised at half a million dollars.

After a few failed attempts and negative feedback from skeptics, the man found an expert who identified his old cat blanket as one of the “finest and rarest” Navajo blankets in the world. The textile brought in 1.5 million at auction (which enabled the man to drop off his diet of ramen and vodka).

Here’s the thing, if Grandma had realized the origin and true value of that blanket, she never would have lent it to the cat. More likely it would have been in a bulletproof glass case with sensors and security guards.

The point is we handle things according to the value we assign them. This is true of possessions but even more so of people. If we have no concept of the value of another person, we are more likely to use, abuse or ignore them. But if we understand Jesus deemed ever human worth dying for, it will change how we treat each other. The level of his sacrifice demonstrates the level of our worth. We need to value each other the way God does.