I kept telling my wife that I expected Tarzan or George of the Jungle to come swinging through our house at any moment. She had set up a corner of the house as her own personal little jungle to accommodate the new guests in our house - our orchids. She found some sources for orchids that were pretty reasonable, and she really enjoyed collecting them. They were very stately and lovely flowers. I guess I learned then that they come in beautiful shades of lavender, purple, red, and yellow. My favorite gardener did the best she could to create the kind of conditions those delicate flowers are used to. They need warmth in the day, and they need cooler temps at night, light, pure water, and humidity. Orchids are tropical plants and they're often found in out-of-the-way places; which poses a fascinating scenario: millions of these spectacular flowers over many centuries, displaying this exotic beauty, growing where no one may have ever seen them. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Unappreciated But Beautiful." Those orchids tell us something about what the Creator of all of us is like. He's extravagant in creating beauty deep in remote jungles, deep beneath the sea, where much of that beauty is never seen. That happens with people, too. In fact, there's probably someone listening right now who is a uniquely beautiful person - even though few, if any, have ever appreciated your beauty. An orchid doesn't need an admirer to be beautiful. Beauty unappreciated is beauty still the same. God really did do something beautiful when He created you. First, because you're created in God's own image. The Bible tells us that "God created man in his own image...male and female He created them" (Genesis 1:27). The Bible goes on to say that God knit you together in your mother's womb. That's in Psalm 139 that you are "fearfully and wonderfully made" (Psalm 139:13-14). You may not have been treated like you're a divine masterpiece (maybe you haven't even believed it yourself) but that doesn't change the fact that you are, because God only does masterpieces. Unfortunately, we've all made the mistake of trying to find our worth in other things: a relationship, a marriage, our children, our friends, our success. But there's never enough love. There's never enough approval. Here's why. Colossians 1:16, our word for today from the Word of God, reveals that "all things were created by Him and for Him." The "Him" is Jesus Christ. And you were created by Him and for Him. The Bible also makes it clear that we haven't lived for Him. It says, "We all, like sheep, have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way" (Isaiah 53:6). Our beauty, our worth are rooted in the One who made us. And we're away from Him because of a lifetime of self-serving and sinful choices. I'm so thankful that God loved us too