What is a loss leader? It is an item that is sold by retail stores at a very low or negative mark up price that brings customers in. The hope is that a person will come in for the loss leader and also buy other things to go with it which is where they’d make their profit. It is something that is essentially sacrificed in order to hopefully get more in return.

I was at work pondering profit margins on various products and this thought occurred to me: “there are no loss-leaders in the Kingdom of God”. What do I mean by this? I mean there is not one soul in His Kingdom that God sacrifices in order to win someone of a “higher value” to Him. There is no one that He will be willing to throw away so that He can get “better results” out of someone He likes better.

I hope this analogy lands for you the way it did for me. See, we as humans tend to value people differently and it can sometimes have a selfish bend to it. Naturally, the people we are closest to like family, or the people we depend on like some coworkers, are a little more valuable to us than others that we only interact with on an occasional basis. And I don’t know about you, but I would find it extremely difficult to end a relationship with my husband or children just so that I could get close to someone that I’ll only see every once in a while.

But that’s what God did for us with His one and only Son. He sent His Son to die for our sins because we couldn’t earn our own salvation. We couldn’t do enough good to outweigh the bad we’ve done. A common analogy is to imagine God’s law written on a sheet of glass. If a rock is thrown through one, it will affect the whole thing. And there’s no way we could get every tiny shard of glass back in its appropriate spot to make it as though it hasn’t happened.

Romans 3:23 says that ALL have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory. The beauty of this tragedy is that it puts us all on a level playing field before the Lord. We’re all messed up in one way or another, even when we like to pretend we’re not.

But there is hope!

Luke 15:3-7 NLT tells us this: “[3] So Jesus told them this story: [4] “If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them gets lost, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others in the wilderness and go to search for the one that is lost until he finds it? [5] And when he has found it, he will joyfully carry it home on his shoulders. [6] When he arrives, he will call together his friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep.’ [7] In the same way, there is more joy in heaven over one lost sinner who repents and returns to God than over ninety-nine others who are righteous and haven’t strayed away!”

Just like we’re all equal at the foot of the cross, we’re also equal at the empty tomb! The only One God sacrificed was the only One Who hadn’t done anything wrong! Because of His great love we can have forgiveness and freedom from our sin. He loves and values us ALL! Take comfort today in knowing that the One Who holds it all in place is the One Who is holding you! And He longs to bring you back home! He won’t give up on you, so don’t give up on Him!