By John 1:25–27 They asked him, “Then why are you baptizing, if you are neither the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?” John answered them, “I baptize with water, but among you stands one you do not know, even he who comes after me, the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie.”
There are two kinds of worth; material worth, and moral worth. Mankind arrives on this earth with neither kind. It is possible to have material worth before birth based upon an inheritance destined to you from another. But no person earns a cent prior to birth. Moral worth has been unattainable to every human child after the fall of our first parents in the garden. We are born, as Romans says, dead in sin.
Material worth is value based upon possessions. Moral worth is value based upon righteousness. This second kind of worth is the value John the Baptist knew he had none of compared to the One wearing the sandals. Yet it is the one thing we receive as a gift simply through trust in the One John baptized. Faith makes the worthless one valuable. Keep your eyes on Jesus today; he makes diamonds out of dust.
Leading Family Devotions 