You are a $20 bill

I heard a great analogy yesterday on Life 102.5 .  It explained how we are all like $20 bills.  Do you ever feel worthless?  Maybe that is too strong a word.  Sometimes it's easy to feel under-appreciated and to forget that you have great value.  Or perhaps you have made mistakes in your life (I know I've made more than my share) and worry that you could never begin to redeem yourself.  How do you feel when next to someone who seems to have a spotless record.  You know, the person, mom, dad, etc who always seems to do and say everything right?  The practical saint in the neighborhood or the person at church who seems to volunteer for everything.  Do you feel that you are worth the same to God?
It's easy to be told that you are important to God and special in your own way.  It's difficult to really believe that and take it to heart.  This analogy helped me.  The speaker asked if you would take a $20 bill from him that had gone through the wash.  What if it has been stepped on? What if it had mud on it?  What if it was slightly torn and had been colored on.  Of course.  It is still worth twenty dollars!  Now, if you took a freshly minted, crisp $20 bill to the store and your mottled, muddied, colored and torn bill to the same store.  Would you be able to purchase more with the clean bill?  Of course not, both bills were made by the same entity and have the same value.
So are we to God.  God made each of us in his image.  Not a one of us is better than the other or worth more to the other.  We all make mistakes, some of us more than others, but that doesn't change how God views us or his love for us.
So the next time you feel rotten inside, worthless or just not as worthy, pull out your wallet and compare your bills (granted in mine, I'll be looking at $1 bills, not $20 :)  ) and remember that each has an identical value.  No more, no less.  You have the same value to God as any other person.  No more, no less.  God loves you, God made you and you are special to him.