In a small village, there was the custom that whenever a young man wished to marry the girl he was courting, he would offer the family a dowry composed of as many cows as he deemed equal to the worth of the girl. 

And in this village, there was a decidedly plain girl. She wasn’t extremely ugly, but she wasn’t beautiful either.  She was completely ordinary. There was nothing special about her. And everyone whispered that this young girl would be worth only one cow- if any. As she passed by in the markets, the villagers would shake their heads and gossip about the plain girl. 

Unbeknownst to them, the plain girl heard their whispers. Their unkind words cut her to the core. And unfortunately, she believed them.

She believed she was plain.
She believed she was completely 
ordinary.
She believed there was nothing special about her.

She also believed that nobody would ever love her.

Years passed, and the young girl grew up. A man started courting her elder sister. They fell in love, and the man offered her family four cows in exchange for her sister’s hand in marriage. Her family was ecstatic! Of course they would be wed! 

Word of the engagement spread throughout the village.
The plain girl was happy for her sister’s good fortune, and she skipped to the market to buy an engagement present. And as she went, the villagers maliciously whispered behind her back.

“That girl’s sister is worth four cows! Too bad she’s only worth one…”

The words stung worse than ever.
Tears began to stream down the plain girl’s cheeks. She hastily wiped them away before anyone would notice. Quickly, she bought her sister a present, and sprinted home.

Time passed by. The wedding happened, the cows were given, and the whispers continued.

One day, a young stranger moved into a village. He opened a store in the market place, and it wasn’t long before the plain girl happened to enter his shop. He conversed with her a little bit, and discovered that she was a delight to talk to. The girl was pleased with the man’s kindness, and so the next time she found an excuse to travel to the market, she slipped back into his shop.

They became friends.

The young man told the girl about his travels and his adventures, and the girl told him about her sister’s wedding and the custom of the cows.

The girl’s trips to the market became more and more frequent.
Soon, the man visited her house and asked her father permission to court her.

The girl was thrilled.

The villagers were not.
They couldn’t believe someone would actually
court the plain girl.  

Sure enough, the pair fell in love.
The young man asked for her father’s permission to marry her… in exchange for EIGHT cows. 

Her father’s jaw dropped- eight cows was an unheard of amount! He asked if the young man was certain if he wanted to lose that much wealth.

The young man nodded emphatically. “Eight cows can hardly measure your daughter’s worth. I would give you more, but eight is all I own. Your daughter is worth everything to me.”

Seeing a determined gleam in the young man’s eye, her father happily agreed. 

Word of the plain girl’s engagement spread like wildfire. Nobody could believe that the plain girl- the one worth one cow- was to be wed and they certainly could not believe that someone thought she was worth eight cows.

The young man’s shop was immediately flooded with perplexed villagers. They pelted him with questions: “Can’t you see that she is only worth one cow? Why are you sacrificing eight?” 

The man shook his head and held up his hand, “You people are superficial. You are quick to judge and eager to cast others down in order to lift yourselves up. You decided that she was plain, and therefore she had no worth. I see her infinite worth, and therefore I find her stunning. If you had only looked for her worth, you would have found it, for it shoots out of her eyes like stars and it flows from her mouth like honey.”

The villagers walked away, stunned. 

A little while later, the man and the girl of infinite worth were married, and they lived happily ever after.

(This tale was adapted from a story originally told by of my friend’s grandfathers.)

You are worth more than sparrows

You, dear reader, are more valuable than sparrows.
You are more valuable than eight cows.
You are fearfully and wonderfully made (Ps. 139:14), and you are precious and loved- by God and by people.

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