I’ve been asking the workmen at the church every week if they came across any hidden treasures during their work. The response was consistent: a resounding NO, none whatsoever.
So, I was delighted when Tim showed me the ‘treasure’ he found buried in the church. It is a ha’ penny from 1971. Perhaps not a huge value in monetary terms. But what is some people’s junk, is other’s treasure.
This is so true of the Gospel as well. Some people hear it, have it for a while and then they drop it and don’t miss it. Like the ha’ penny that was dropped in the West Transept, perhaps it fell through the cracks and laid hidden for decades. I wonder if the owner of it missed it at all!
Jesus said about the Kingdom of God that it is “like treasure hidden in a field; when a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.” (Matthew 13:44). That ha’ penny is a parable to me.
The man who found the treasure in the field, deemed it extremely valuable, in fact so precious that he sold everything he had, everything for he worked for up to that point, everything that was important and precious to him, for the treasure was even more valuable than all he had, or he could ever get. He did that not with a grudge, or complaints but with joy! There is no such thing as half-hearted discipleship! Jesus warns us: “No-one who puts his hand to the plough and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.” (Luke 9:62)
The kingdom of God is of such great value that you should be willing to give up all you have in order to gain it!
If you have it, don’t drop it! Make sure you will not lose it! Rather share it with others, it will not get smaller doing that!
[from GV]