Coco Calling No.204 - How Much Are We Worth?

My owner was recently sorting out some stuff in our annex. Nanna lived over there before her passing last September, and regular readers may remember that I used to fly over to see her every morning.

Well, my owner came across some old documents relating to his birth. Nanna had chosen to give birth to him in a private nursing home following a bad hospital experience some years before. And don’t you just know it, my owner didn’t appear very quickly! (Why don’t humans lay eggs like parrots?) It was a long, drawn-out labour with some complications, before he was eventually delivered safely into this world. The consultant overseeing his birth, -a certain Dr. W.R.D. Wiggins – issued a bill for his services amounting to 16 pounds and 16 shillings (which in today’s money is about £16.80). So I guess that no one thought my owner was very valuable when he was born. I mean, you couldn’t buy a budgerigar for that these days!

But then again, it’s only humans that put a monetary value on things and so very often, they get it wrong. Just think about those humans that run up and down on a patch of grass trying to kick a ball between two white posts. They can be sold by their clubs for as much as 100 million pounds.

A 100 million pounds could pay for one million blind people to have their sight restored in parts of Africa and South America. So are these humans called footballers so very super-special? So that their overall value is greater than a million blind people being able to see again?

And then what about human artwork? Leonardo da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa” is supposedly worth some £585 million pounds. So does that make it more precious than say a parrot like me? Because a painting is simply a creation by humans, whereas I am beyond the skills and handiwork of any human being. Only God could create me. So do humans rate their own creations over and above those of God? How many Senegal Parrots would it take to equal the so-called value of the “Mona Lisa”? The answer to that question is close on 2 million, meaning that according to humans, the “Mona Lisa” is worth more than the combined total of all of the Senegal Parrots in the world put together. Oh help!

And so it seems that money and wealth can distort the human perspective of things so that true worth and value are ignored. I know that a starving human child in the Yemen is more valuable to God than any professional football player. And hopefully He thinks I’m more precious than the “Mona Lisa.” Because Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross suddenly gave a whole new value to every single one of us!

“Jesus looked around and said to His disciples, ‘How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!’”

(Mark 10:23)

“The world and its desires will pass away, but the man who follows the will of

God lives for ever.”

(1 John 2:17)

“I judge all things by the price they will gain in eternity.” (John Wesley: 1703 – 1791: Founder of Methodist Movement)

“Kindness doesn’t cost a penny, but it’s value is beyond measure to the recipient.” (Chris Holmes: 1968 – present: American writer)