Treasuring

Every day people wake up and realize they have a fortune on their hands - and they didn't even know it.

Here are some of my favorite examples (reported by The Chicago Tribune):

In 1989, a guy in Pennsylvania bought a painting for $4 in a flea market. He just wanted the frame - not the painting. So he removed the painting and found a copy of the Declaration of Independence. It was auctioned in 1991 for $2.4 million.

A guy in Michigan had a funny-looking rock for a doorstop for three decades. One day, he took it to the geology department of Central Michigan University. They and the Smithsonian determined it was the sixth biggest meteorite ever found in Michigan and valued it at $100,000.

In 2014, a scrap collector in the Midwest bought a golden egg for $14,000. He planned to melt the gold and sell it. But as he looked into his purchase, he realized that the parts would only sell for about $500, so he did some more research. Well… it turns out that his particular Russian Faberge egg was valued at $33 million.

We're drawn to these stories because they surprise us - and perhaps because we think, maybe, one day, that will be me.

But how much time and effort have we spent to consider the treasure we have in God?

And how would we know if we treasure God?

Jesus tells two important parables, recorded in Matthew 13:44-45:

"The kingdom of heaven is like treasure, buried in a field, that a man found and reburied. Then in his joy he goes and sells everything he has and buys that field.

Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls. When he found one priceless pearl, he went and sold everything he had and bought it."

As Robert Mounce explains, "Both stress the same basic point that the kingdom of heaven is of such supreme worth that everything must be sacrificed in order to attain it."

But does that seem like a stretch - or an obvious point?

Let's take a moment to consider one benefit of the kingdom of heaven. The theologian Gerald Bray states, "The glorification of the Christian is that we shall share in God's glory when we are in our resurrected bodies in the new heavens and new earth, experiencing deeper fellowship with God and not being at risk of falling away into sin, God's glory finally being 'all in all.'"

What's the Biblical basis for this statement? There are many, but consider 1 John 3:2, "Dear friends, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that when he appears, we will be like him because we will see him as he is."

So how do we make progress in this - from not treasuring God to seeing his glory as our ultimate goal?

Or in more conversational terms: "How do I fall in love with God?"

Here's one answer: Matthew 6:21 says, "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

So, by meditating on what treasures we have in Christ, over time, our hearts will be with him too.