(Another writing from the archives)
This article reminded me of something the Lord showed me several years ago, which I added below.
“Picked up for 3 bucks, Chinese bowl goes for $2.2 million at auction”
By Erin McClam, Staff Writer, NBC News
A Chinese bowl that a New York family picked up for $3 at a garage sale turned out to be a 1,000-year-old treasure and has sold at auction for $2.2 million.
The bowl — ceramic, 5 inches in diameter and with a saw-tooth pattern etched around the outside — went to a London dealer, Giuseppe Eskenazi, at Sotheby’s auction house in New York on Tuesday.
Sotheby’s said the bowl was from the Northern Song Dynasty, which ruled China from 960 to 1127 and is known for its cultural and artistic advances.
The auction house said the only other known bowl of similar size and design has been in the collection of the British Museum for more than 60 years. The house had estimated that this one would sell for $200,000 to $300,000.
Sotheby’s did not identify the sellers, but said they put the bowl up for auction after consulting with experts. The family bought the bowl in 2007 and had kept it on a mantel in the years since. There weren’t any additional details made public about the garage sale where they had purchased the item.
Years ago, the Lord showed me a picture of an oil painting, sitting on an old, chrome framed, yellow vinyl, kitchen chair. The chair was sitting out on the lawn, with masking tape across one corner of the paintings frame.
As I pondered what the scene meant, I remembered hearing stories about people who’ve cleaned out attics and inadvertently sold valuable masterpieces, by artists like Rembrandt or Picasso; sometimes getting as little as five or ten dollars at a yard sale. Obviously, the people, who found those old pictures, had no idea of their value; and as I continued to meditate on this, a deeper understanding began to emerge.
The most obvious meaning of this picture was that God considers each of His children to be a masterpiece, regardless of whether they’ve ever been treated like one. Sadly, when you’ve been handled like old junk, it becomes easier to believe that’s what you are. But in truth, the real value of a masterpiece is not diminished by the failure of its beholder to understand its worth. It is the one who undervalues the artifact who ultimately suffers the loss.
Few would argue God’s credentials as a “Master” Creator; but just as it is with the Master Painters here on earth, some might want to quibble over His “greater” and “lesser” works. Yet to the artist, each work is an expression of their inner being, each is valuable and irreplaceable. One painting might get more attention than another, one may bring more profit, but each one is of equal value in reflecting the heart and vision of its creator. Undoubtedly, if those who looked upon such a painting, with untrained eyes, had known the name of the artist, they may have had some greater sense of its worth.
Genuine art lovers can often pick up subtle details in a picture that an unskilled or maybe even an uncaring eye might miss. They can often derive much more significance from a work than someone who only scans for the obvious; and so it is with us.
We may not always see the beauty in people, but how often have we really looked for it. We may not always understand what the Creator was trying to convey to us, but simply knowing who created them should make these works valuable to us. While this may be difficult with some people, it may be most difficult as we look in the mirror. I sense that God’s heart is just as grieved when we don’t understand our own value to Him, as when we don’t see the value in others.
I believe that God wants us to be like the lovers of great art; to look deeply into His creation and to find Him in it. The scripture says that the invisible qualities of God are found in the things He created and that we were created in His own image.
I sense that He is calling us to look past the obvious (love covers a multitude of sins) and to find the beauty He’s placed inside of each one of His children. Once we find it, I believe that He would have us cultivate (i.e. to shine the light on and water) it. Isn’t that what Jesus did?
He didn’t focus on the flaws or mistakes; He treated each one as precious and valuable. We can see that people were transformed by that (e.g. the woman at the well, the woman taken from the bed of adultery, the woman at the well, Zacchaeus…).
Jesus told the apostles that people would know His followers by the way that they loved each other. Is that how people know us church folk? How much of a difference would it make if we sought the beauty that God placed in each person and if we truly valued them as a unique creation, from the hands of a Master Artist. If our hearts are going to align with His, we are going to have to become more passionate about those He created.
Bjcorbin's Blog 
Competitive Edge
Posted in Commentaries, tagged collaboration, community, compare, compete, competitive, cooperation, covet, creation, creator, cultural, design, envy, estranged, floundered, fractured, garden, insecurity, provision, self-worth, survival on September 11, 2025| Leave a Comment »
I believe that God revealed His design for all of creation in the Garden. Within this original blueprint there was no strife, or any need to push to the front of the line. Every creature had their place, and He was their limitless provision. Each creation derived its sense of worth and purpose from its unique relationship to the Creator.
Had mankind chosen to remain under the umbrella of His Lordship, unspeakable joy and a peace that surpasses understanding, could have been our daily bread. But the choice to go our own way, and to rely on our own sense of what is right came with significant costs. Not the least of which was the change in how we view ourselves, and how we look at one another.
Unhinged from the Father’s perspective, we lost track of our identity, purpose, and sense of belonging. Without Him as a singular reference point, we began to look at each other, and to measure ourselves by what we saw. I believe it’s telling that after eating the forbidden fruit man and woman covered the parts of themselves that were different from each other.
As mankind was expelled from the garden, life became a struggle for provision and a battle to survive (Gen.3:17-19). Estranged from our limitless Provider, and unseated from our place at His table, we floundered to find our place in the world, or to conjure a sense of self-worth. Our comparisons (to each other) inevitably led to competition, and it didn’t take long for that dynamic to become lethal (Gen.4:8).
Because of man’s natural proclivity to compare, to covet and to compete we seem to have accepted that this is all part of God’s design, but I would suggest that it’s actually a byproduct of the fall. If our identities were rooted in Christ, and if we trusted that He is our provision, there would be no need to compare, covet or compete. As such, I think it’s fair to say that our compulsion to compete is generally rooted in both our insecurity and our instinct to survive.
Western culture has not only accepted competition as a normal part of the human condition, it has embraced it as a core value. Our society loves to turn every facet of life into a contest (e.g. The Voice-singing, The Bachelor-relationships, The Biggest Loser-weight loss, Beat Bobby Flay-cooking, Rock the Block-home renovation…), and we indoctrinate our children into this pattern at an increasingly young age (e.g. Pee-Wee sports leagues starting at 3yrs old). But the reality of competition is that it is most often poisonous in terms of cooperation, collaboration, community and any sort of meaningful relationship.
Perhaps worse than our cultural embrace of this destructive paradigm is its broad acceptance within the Body of Christ. Whether it is wrestling for the lead vocal on the Worship team, or trying to woo congregants from other local ministries, or all the preening and posturing that goes on at church leadership conferences, our religious system is absolutely infested with a competitive spirit, featuring countless “ministries” solely dedicated to discrediting other ministers and ministries.
Though the followers of Jesus were meant to be identifiable based on their great love for one another (John 13:35), we “Christians” routinely struggle to gather together without all manner of envy and strife. But if love is patient and does not envy. If it is not self-seeking and keeps no record. If it always protects, always trusts, always hopes, and always perseveres (1Cor.13:4-7), then there is no context in which it can be competitive. And without love, we have nothing and are nothing (1Cor.13:2-3).
God commanded that we refrain from covetous (or coveting) and if we hope to be obedient to that standard we must also resist our natural urge to compare and to compete. We need to take a hard look (i.e. through spiritual eyes) at our ideas about competition, and to examine them in light of what the scripture teaches. If we continue to view competition through the lens of culture, the church will remain fractured in much the same way our society is.
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