What's It Worth To You?

Jesus said to his disciples:
"The Kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field,
which a person finds and hides again,
and out of joy goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.
Again, the Kingdom of heaven is like a merchant
searching for fine pearls.
When he finds a pearl of great price,
he goes and sells all that he has and buys it."

What's it worth to you, I mean really, what are you willing to give to get the buried treasure or the pearl of great price?  In our parable today the first person found a buried treasure.  We can almost see a chest filled with gold, silver, sapphires, diamonds, and all of the cash you could ever need.  You found it but it is on land that you do not own.  And what about that absolutely beautiful pearl, perfectly white and smooth as silk and without spot or blemish - what would you do to make it yours?  In our story today the people who found these great treasures sold all that they had and then traded what they once held dear for something much better. 

Jesus, in this story, says the same thing about each person.  Each of them, he says, "sells all that he has and buys it."  Jesus said it twice so it has to convey a very special hint for those of us here.  

First, though, we have to recognize a treasure when we see it. In the book Mutiny on the Bounty, Mr. Christian is speaking to one of the chiefs on Tahiti and he holds up a nail and a gold coin and asks the chief which is more useful.  The chief is a practical man and tells him that the nail was more valuable. Christian shakes his head and tells the chief that the gold coin would allow him to buy many of the nails.  So first we too have to determine where our treasure lies. We are all going to buy this treasure for it is what we want the most, we just have to decide between the nail and the coin. Choose the nail, that is the things of this world, and you will have a very temporary period of joy as you use these things up.  Choose the Kingdom of God and you will have treasure and wealth and joy that you cannot even imagine right now and you will have it forever and no one will ever be able to take it away from you.  

Did you ever think of it this way?  Did you ever think that you will choose your treasure and that you will put your whole life into attaining it, you will spend your last bit of energy to get your heart's desire and your part is to decide what it is you want?  Choose carefully, young warrior. We have only so much time and so much energy to invest in our quest.  When that time is done, we shall get what we wanted from the start.  The only difference between a person who has failed and a person who has succeeded will be if his treasure, the thing that makes his heart beat with excitement, will stand the test and ravages of time or if they will last forever.  

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