FOR SHEER JOY!
The kingdom of Heaven is like treasure lying in a field. The man who found it, buried it again; and for sheer joy went and sold everything he had, and bought that field. Matt. 13:44, N.E.B.
Telling Bible stories to children can be fun. For one thing, children need more word pictures because their vocabulary is limited--which, of course, tends to make the lessons more vivid. And more simple, which is equally important, because youngsters respond to simplicity. Unfortunately, by the time we reach maturity we seem to have "graduated" to more complex (and often obscure) religious terminology. For a lot of people, this takes the fun out of Bible study, and out of knowing God.
I have good news: God too enjoys storytelling! Most of the Bible is written in story form. Jesus, who was "God with us," loved to gather a cluster of people around Himself and tell them parables. One such story-lesson involved a man who found buried treasure. Though the Scripture record is but one text in length, I can easily imagine Him describing the incident with relish. Knowing how dreary and uninviting the priests had made spiritual things, Jesus sought to underscore how exciting it can be to "discover" the truth about God and His ways.
By portraying this knowledge as buried treasure, Jesus gently offered comfort to His listeners. He implied that they were not at fault for not readily seeing how exciting and enrichening it is to know God--such truth had been buried under mounds of ritual and falsehood. But there was hope! Hidden in a common field, the treasure lay, waiting to be discovered. I can just see Jesus pausing here in the narrative, smiling slightly, waiting for them to notice His lowly garb, His sandaled and dusty feet.
Then, not to keep His listeners in suspense, He quickly assures them that the treasure is indeed found, but not without some price to the finder. The man who found the treasure sold everything he had to purchase the field in which it lay--but it was for sheer joy that he made such sacrifice! And who would doubt that he lost nothing by doing so? What a contrast to their feelings of being taken advantage of by the priests--and consequently, by God!--during the rites of sacrifice in the Temple service!
Friend, our exciting God is waiting for you to find Him! And finding Him will bring you sheer joy!
The kingdom of Heaven is like treasure lying in a field. The man who found it, buried it again; and for sheer joy went and sold everything he had, and bought that field. Matt. 13:44, N.E.B.
Telling Bible stories to children can be fun. For one thing, children need more word pictures because their vocabulary is limited--which, of course, tends to make the lessons more vivid. And more simple, which is equally important, because youngsters respond to simplicity. Unfortunately, by the time we reach maturity we seem to have "graduated" to more complex (and often obscure) religious terminology. For a lot of people, this takes the fun out of Bible study, and out of knowing God.
I have good news: God too enjoys storytelling! Most of the Bible is written in story form. Jesus, who was "God with us," loved to gather a cluster of people around Himself and tell them parables. One such story-lesson involved a man who found buried treasure. Though the Scripture record is but one text in length, I can easily imagine Him describing the incident with relish. Knowing how dreary and uninviting the priests had made spiritual things, Jesus sought to underscore how exciting it can be to "discover" the truth about God and His ways.
By portraying this knowledge as buried treasure, Jesus gently offered comfort to His listeners. He implied that they were not at fault for not readily seeing how exciting and enrichening it is to know God--such truth had been buried under mounds of ritual and falsehood. But there was hope! Hidden in a common field, the treasure lay, waiting to be discovered. I can just see Jesus pausing here in the narrative, smiling slightly, waiting for them to notice His lowly garb, His sandaled and dusty feet.
Then, not to keep His listeners in suspense, He quickly assures them that the treasure is indeed found, but not without some price to the finder. The man who found the treasure sold everything he had to purchase the field in which it lay--but it was for sheer joy that he made such sacrifice! And who would doubt that he lost nothing by doing so? What a contrast to their feelings of being taken advantage of by the priests--and consequently, by God!--during the rites of sacrifice in the Temple service!
Friend, our exciting God is waiting for you to find Him! And finding Him will bring you sheer joy!
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