When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
    the moon and the stars that you have established;

what are humans that you are mindful of them,
    mortals that you care for them?

Yet you have made them a little lower than God
    and crowned them with glory and honor.

-Psalm 8:3-5

When I was a little girl, one of my favorite movies was A Little Princess, directed by Alfonso Cuarón (who went on to win Best Director for Gravity). A Little Princess is the story of Sara Crewe, a rich little girl whose father, Captain Crewe, serves in the British military and is stationed in India. Sara loves the Indian folklore her father and nanny tell her about love, perseverance, and magic. (In the magic of the movie and costume department, the same actor plays both Captain Crewe and the brave Prince Rama.) Through these stories, Sara learns the important message: all girls are princesses.

When Captain Crewe is called up for WWI, Sara is enrolled in an austere boarding school for girls under the demanding eye of Miss Minchin. Sara lives a life of sheltered privilege with the other girls at the school until the news comes that her father has been killed in action. Immediately upon receiving the news, Miss Minchin moves Sara into a small attic room and makes her work alongside Becky, another young orphan, to clean, cook, and run errands for the girls who were once her classmates. When Miss Minchin scolds and demeans Sara and Becky, Sara stands up to her, declaring, “All girls ARE princesses. Even you! Didn’t your father ever tell you that? Didn’t he?”

Psalm 8, which we will hear in worship this Sunday, tells us another story about the worth and dignity of all people. It does this, not through folklore or the magic of the movies, but through the psalmist’s praise of God’s character and work. To the psalmist, humans don’t seem to be anything particularly special. To God, humans are chosen to be crowned with glory and honor. All of us, princesses and princes, regarded by God as precious and worthy of attention.

In other words, God doesn’t overlook any of us. Not poor orphaned girls like Sara, nor jaded spinsters like Miss Minchin. Not homeless people sleeping on the streets of Ankeny, nor the people tossing and turning all night in their half-million dollar homes for want of the peace money can’t buy. Not children who dread the start of summer because it means one less meal each day that school is in session, nor the ones whose disordered eating controls their lives. Not immigrants working to find security, nor National Guard members sleeping in their clothes on concrete floors.

All humans ARE crowned with glory and honor. Even you! Didn’t anybody ever tell you that?