A Buried Treasure In A Field

Good morning and welcome to Our Daily Walk.

Audio version at http://tinyurl.com/27zmpa

Have you ever uncovered a treasure in your own back yard? Have you ever walked outside after a hard rain and reached down to pick up a gold nugget that suddenly appeared? Most people have not had such experiences and likely never will. But there are treasures to be found and sometimes they are right under our own noses.

Russell Cromwell’s famous book, Acres of Diamonds, describes the journeys of a man who was determined to find diamonds. He sold his farm and set out to find his fortune. All he had to do was just find some diamonds and then he would be wealthy.

But he didn’t find any diamonds on his journey. And the irony is that the person who purchased his farm was watering an animal one day and looked down to see something shiny. You guessed it. It was a diamond. And there were more and more to be found—acres of diamonds just beneath the surface of this man’s farm. This man sold his land in order to search for what was under his feet all the time.

Similar stories can be found about people who didn’t realize the value of a treasure all around them. In 1799 a man in North Carolina found a large rock and used it as a door stop for three years. Then one day a jeweler recognized it and told the man that what he had was actually a 17 pound nugget of gold! Other large nuggets, some as large as 28 pounds, were found on that one farm. Millions of dollars worth of the precious metal was just underneath the surface of that farm.

Unrealized value is all too common. We often can see the value in others that we can not see in ourselves.

Jesus speaks of a hidden treasure in a one verse parable in Matthew 13:44. He says, “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid; and for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.”

This parable shows the joy that one should have in finding the salvation of God through Jesus Christ. When a person discovers the love of God and the salvation that He extends, he is overcome with joy and rushes to enter into that good relationship.

There are certainly times when others will not appreciate the value that we see. At estate auctions we sometimes watch as something of great value is sold for a small sum. The one who purchased the item is the only one who really saw the value. Had the others seen the same value they would not have let it be sold without giving higher competing bids.

I’ve sat with people who had difficulty seeing the value in their own lives. In some cases they had done some pretty bad things in their past. Others had not done anything horrible, but had wasted the opportunities to do the right thing. In both cases their perceived value of their own life was lower than it should have been.

Do you know how valuable you really are? God set a standard for the value of your soul by sending His Son to die for your sins. Jesus said in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

We didn’t deserve His great gift, but God still said we were worth dying for. Paul adds to this in Romans 5:8 where he says, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Still, some will never recognize the great value that they have in their own souls! If only they would realize that they possess a unique spirit, that is God given and that will live for eternity! If only they would awaken to the buried treasure in that field which is the salvation extended from God! Then they would leap for joy and exchange all that they have now for the hope of what God has promised.

On Our Daily Walk today, may we never forget that we are made in the image of God and that a great price was paid so that we might enjoy eternal life.

Our thought for the day: “Give me a stock clerk with a goal and I will give you a man who will make history. Give me a man without a goal, and I will give you a stock clerk.” J. C. Penney

May God bless you on your daily walk.

© Our Daily Walk, Mike Baker, 2007. Permission is granted to copy these articles provided they are not sold and the author's name and copyright are included.