In Lagos, Nigeria, where I grew up, many who'd left home to make their way in the United States were welcomed back as heroes. I admit that I used to get caught up in some of that hero worship myself. These people seemed so beautiful and modern to me, so much better than I was. I felt unworthy next to them. Sometimes I questioned my own abilities.
But I always had something to fall back on, and that was the definition of worth that my parents taught me right from the very beginning. They would say, "Tunde, you are worth a lot, you are worth so much because you are the reflection of God, you are evidence of God's existence." They would tell me, "Your very being is attesting to the goodness of God."
I love in the Bible where it says, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." John 1:1. I like to think of that Word as God expressing Himself, speaking joyfully of the goodness and beauty and majesty of His nature. And then I think, Wow! In the beginning God expressed Himself in all this joy and all this intelligence and all this light—and I am part of that expression. God is speaking of me in His rejoicing. How, then, could I not believe that I am priceless?
