Finding Treasure

 

When we were getting ready to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary, my husband, Jim, booked an Alaskan Cruise. The cruise was one of the most beautiful I’ve taken and revealed so much about the beauty of God’s Creation.

While on the cruise, we scheduled several onshore excursions, and one was a train ride up to the Canadian border when we arrived at Skagway. Unfortunately, on this day, Jim had contracted the nasty stomach illness common on cruises and was quarantined, so I decided to do the excursion alone. As the train traveled up through the mountains, we were told to look in a specific direction and find the trail that went up through the mountains. We were told that this trail was the path taken by gold-diggers during the gold rush era. The path was extremely steep and narrow.

In his devotional, “Living in His Light,” David Jeremiah made the following comment: “Hungry for wealth, prospectors traveled from all over the United States –and many from other parts of the world –to search for mineral treasure buried in the ground. No sacrifice was too great relative to the treasures to be found.”

Matthew 6:21 says, “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” (ESV) Many prospectors for gold and silver gave up their lives for treasures that they never found. King Solomon used the seeking earthly treasures as a metaphor for seeking spiritual treasures, mainly wisdom. In Proverbs 2:1-5 we find a guide for seeking spiritual treasures which include: “receiving, hearing, applying, asking, seeking, searching – all things necessary when looking for something of value.” (Jeremiah). In Proverbs 3:15 we are told that “wisdom is more precious than rubies.” I Peter 1:7 says that “our faith is more precious than gold that perishes.”

The early prospectors sought treasures that were valuable but temporal. As believers, are we seeking temporal or eternal treasures? Is your heart focused daily on God, or are you looking to find treasures and pleasures in the things of this world?

Remember: “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”

--Bonnie King