It has been said that necessity is the mother of invention. It is through adversity that we truly find out the truth of this statement. 

When you encounter adversity, you either find a way to adapt and overcome, or you give up and throw in the towel.

Stories abound of individuals who lose limbs, or entire senses, and learn to adapt, to live life abundantly without those tools. 

Life was never meant to be easy. We were meant to face challenges and trials. We depend on God through those trials. But he has also given us the capacity to adapt to those difficult circumstances.

You see, human life is more than just a clump of cells, a set of DNA or a beating heart. The Lord has created the human mind with an incredible capacity for problem solving, innovation, and imagination. You see it in the inquisitive and curious mind of a child who can turn a coffee can into a drum, a paper towel roll into a telescope, and chairs and blankets into a wilderness fort.

As I watch a child take in the world around them with wide-eyed wonder, I have no question in my mind that we are indeed created in the image of God.

This means all life is valuable no matter what their past, no matter what they’ve done, no matter what they look like, no matter what stage of life they’re at. All life matters, no matter what, because all life is created in the image of God.

We were not simply meant to bear his image physically, but to bear his image spiritually.

I cannot possibly witness the imagination of a child, or the complexity of the human body and mind, and look at any life at any stage as disposable. Just as we can repurpose things that others discard, there is no life that is ever created without value. And there is no life that deserves to be thrown away. 

We are all redeemed. We are all renewed. We are all restored. We are all created in His image.

God created our hearts for beauty. He created us to love Him and to love others the way He first loved us.

I have learned through beginning woodworking that everything no matter how mundane, no matter how worn down can be turned into a valuable treasure. And we are infinitely more valuable than any other created thing.

“Through the praise of children and infants you have established a stronghold against your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger. When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them? You have made them a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and honor,” Psalm 8:2-5, NIV

Your life matters. Give hold of it to the God who can restore, redeem and renew.

And interact with others also in such a manner that demonstrates their worth in the eyes of a marvelous Creator.

Don’t let a single life a single heart go to waste. See every life in the context in which the Creator sees it as valuable and worthy of love.

Life is a treasure. Never let a single life be thrown away.

Daniel Kiewel is a reporter for the Great Bend (Kan.) Tribune. He can be reached at dkiewel@gbtribune.com.