The Lord Treasures Me.

Theo has a favorite toy of the week. It is almost never an actual toy.

A few weeks ago, it was a wooden railway signal from his train set. Not the train. Not the track. The signal.

He carried it to preschool every single day and even slept with it in his bed.

Before that, it was a tiny watch battery he saw us swap into a toy and decided was beautiful. (We retired that one quickly, before Jesse got any ideas about tasting it.)

This week, it is two Lego propellers joined together with a plastic pipe. It is at preschool with him right now, and like clockwork, the first thing he did when he walked in this morning was hold it up and show everyone.

None of these things are worth anything. A signal with no track. A battery with no charge. Propellers with no plane. You could not sell the whole collection for a dollar.

But their value was never the point. Those objects are precious for one reason only: Theo chose them. The treasuring is what makes them treasure.

Most of us do the opposite with ourselves. We ask what we are worth and we start keeping score.

How useful we are. How well we are holding it together. How we stack up against everyone around us. And on the days the score comes up short, we assume God's delight in us comes up short too.

But that is not how God talks about His people.

He calls them His own possession. Chosen. Not chosen because they earned it, and not because they were the strongest or the most impressive.

He simply says, you are Mine. The treasuring creates the worth, not the other way around.

And look at what treasuring actually does. Theo does not keep his treasures in a drawer. They get carried everywhere. They sleep on the pillow. They get held up in front of a whole room.

Scripture says God rejoices over His people with singing.

That is not a God who tolerates you from a distance. That is a God who keeps you close and delights in being seen with you.

Theo's treasure changes every week. Next week, the propellers will go back in the Lego box, and something new will ride to preschool in his fist.

But God has never once rotated His. He chose you, and He has not changed His mind. You were never the toy of the week. You are the treasure He does not put down.