I have a treasure! I take it for granted all the time.

Here’s what I love: I have a treasure!! Here’s what I hate: I take it for granted all the time.

Our dear friends Bob and Julie came for a visit last weekend. They came all the way from New Jersey where they now live. It was so nice to get to hang out with them and let the kids catch up and run wild. Their daughter Abby is the same age as my little Alexis. At one point during their visit, I was driving with just the two of them chatting happily in my back seat. We passed by a train. This led to a discussion of subways which Alexis remembered riding when we visited NYC last summer. Abby now lives about 30 minutes outside of The Big Apple and yet, she has not ridden a subway. Little Abby didn’t seem bothered by this fact, but I thought it was interesting that someone living so close to such a rich and wonderful city would not have visited there. This is not a criticism of her busy parents who have not yet taken her to the city. I mean, they live SO close, they have plenty of time to go. Besides, we all take for granted the things we have in abundance until they are taken from us. Things like health, electricity, and good Tex-Mex.

It was then that it struck me: I completely take for granted my free and wonderful proximity to a true and lasting treasure…

I know a missionary who recently returned from India to the US for a visit. One thing he mentioned lately on FB is how he has taken note of a fairly large number of people reading their Bible at Starbucks. I took this to mean that in India, people aren’t reading their Bibles, (if they have them,) in public. I hear all the time how people in foreign countries don’t have the freedom of religion that we enjoy here in the United States. Knowing this in my head makes me feel some vague sense of gratitude that I live in a country where it is not forbidden to read the Bible in public.

But, I don’t think that it’s ever truly sunk in that the Bible contains the knowledge and revelation of the one true God. If this fact has penetrated my brain (or better yet, my soul), why do I not take action!? Job said that he had not departed from the commands of God’s lips—that he had treasured the words of God’s mouth more than his daily bread. Hmm. More than my daily bread? When I am slow and cranky in the morning, I turn to the coffee pot, not the Word. Proverbs 2:4 tells me that if I look for it as silver, and search for it as hidden treasure, then I will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. Oh, I’ve searched for things with intensity before—like my keys and my iPhone, and the thought that just escaped my brain. I’ll spend lots of energy seeking those things.

So, I’ve decided. I don’t want to live in proximity to such a rich and wonderful tool and not utilize it to it’s full potential. Maybe, like my friends who live so close to NYC who figure they have plenty of time to introduce their kids to one of the most amazing cities in the world, I’ve figured that I have loads of time and the freedom to read the Bible whenever I want…so, I’ll do it later. Where is the passion in that?

I tend to delight more in the temporal than the eternal.

It’s ridiculous. And I’m done. I am going to ask the Head of this Kingdom in which I claim to live, to open my eyes, touch my heart, and renew my joy in things unseen. Maybe I’ll start to live a little more like the man in Jesus’ parable who found treasure in a field and sold all that he had so that he could buy the field and possess the treasure. Maybe I’ll begin to passionately value the scriptures in a new way. God has chosen me to be His treasured possession. (Psalm 135:4) Surely I can learn to seek HIM more than the things of this world.