June 20, 2026 Devo

In October 1988, John Barrier walked into his bank in Spokane, Washington, to cash a check. He parked in the bank’s parking lot while he tended to some business that day in the downtown area, and the bank was his last stop. After the teller cashed the check, John handed her his parking ticket and asked her to validate it. The teller looked him up and down. John was dressed as he was on most days, in his shabby clothes, stained and dirty from the construction work he did. He also drove an old pickup that matched his clothes. The teller pushed his parking ticket back to him and told him that ticket validation was only for customers who carried out transactions. John told her he had just cashed a check. She said that didn’t count. John asked to see the manager. The teller rolled her eyes as if to say, “That won’t help.” John said, “Fine. I’ll make a transaction then. I’d like to withdraw all my money from this bank.” John Barrier, who made his money buying and refurbishing buildings, was a millionaire. It was a lesson the teller never forgot.
I’ll bet some of us have had that experience. People who looked at us and put a low price tag on our worth. People who treated us as though we were less than them—not worth their time, their energy, or worth being treated with human courtesy. Sadly, some of us may have even grown up in homes where we were made to feel that way. Like we were a mistake. Like we were in the way. Like we had no place, no purpose, or no value.
Thankfully, God sees us much differently. Look at how we are described in our passage in Isaiah today. We are “a splendid crown in the hand of God.” There are several wonderful meanings in this description. Let me just give you two.
One is that we have SIGNIFICANCE. A crown represents royalty. God declares us to be His Children—and He is a KING! That means that He has given us honor and station. He has given our lives a divine meaning and purpose. As members of the Royal Family, we are to carry out the plans and commands of our Father/King.
The second is that we are PRICELESS. A crown was not made of ordinary metal. It was made of gold and studded with precious gems. Isaiah tells us that God holds us up in His Hand so that the whole world can behold the priceless nature of who God has made us to be. We are the “pearl of great price.” We are the “treasure” that He was willing to sell everything to possess. We have a value that no scales on earth can calculate.
Camp on that today. Carry yourself with that thought today. Not with an air of pride or vanity, but with a confidence in who you really are. You are Significant. You are Priceless. No matter how the tellers in this world may treat you, you are “a splendid crown in the hand of God.” That’s God’s Word for you today.