Do we value the treasure
God offers us?
When, in the First Book of Kings, God offers to fulfill any wish of the newly crowned King Solomon, the
young man offers a surprising reply:
rather than ask for a long life or the death of his enemies or any form
of material treasure, Solomon asks for an
understanding heart to judge God’s people
and to distinguish right from wrong.
Would that we were all so wise! King
Solomon understands the value of wisdom, God’s wisdom, and desires to see as
God sees, so as better to live his life in relationship with the Lord by
dispensing godly, life-giving justice to those over whom he rules. To do so, he need only follow the dictates of
Psalm 119, loving God’s commands, recognizing the precious treasure
that God’s word represents to those who seek to do justice: The law
of your mouth is to me more precious than thousands of gold and silver pieces,
the psalmist sings. Do we value wisdom
as much as Solomon?
In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus
suggests that we must be similarly wise as we consider the value of the kingdom of heaven. Seeing as God sees, opening ourselves to God’s
wisdom, we recognize that the kingdom is precious; Jesus likens it to a treasure buried in a field for which we
might give all we have, or a pearl of
great price. Likewise at the end of the age, Jesus says, when what is good, like the fish in the net,
will be saved, whereas what is bad they
throw away.
What is precious in
our life? What would we give to attain that treasure? To seek the wisdom and judgment of
God, to pursue an ongoing understanding of God’s commands, to desire the
kingdom above all, we must know what it is we believe in, what we live for,
what we are committed to with the whole of our being. If we conform to the image of Jesus, the firstborn, as Paul tells the Romans,
then we too are called, called to share God’s wisdom, called to
seek a profound understanding of God’s justice, called to keep God’s
words and to share God’s love, that all might value the kingdom of heaven. And that
is a true treasure.
This post is based on OLMC’s
Scripture class.
Image source: Wordle
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