What does wealth look like to you?
For most, it is something tangible. Stacks of one hundred dollar bills. A pile of gold coins. A beachfront mansion. Diamond jewelry...Treasure you can touch.
This treasure is an Eisenberg sterling silver and multi-color rhinestone fur clip dating to the 1940's. The woman who purchased, and wore, this stunning clip would've been considered wealthy at the time! I found it at the bottom of a dilapidated old jewelry box with other cast-offs at an estate sale. Some treasures lose their value to the owner over time. We've all cast something away when it was no longer precious to us!
So what is something that lasts, a forever treasure?
A rich young man ran up to Jesus and asked Him how he could inherit eternal life. Perhaps he wanted validation; he went on to say that he had kept the commandments - Do not murder, do not steal, do not commit adultery, do not bear false witness, do not defraud, honor your father and mother - since he was a youth. Surely this would be enough to gain the treasure of eternal life!
Jesus looked at him, and in love, told him the truth. "One thing you lack: go and sell all you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me." But the rich young man became sad, and went away grieving.
The man's wealth was what he treasured...more than eternal life...
So let's ask Jesus the same question -what we must do to inherit the forever treasure of eternal life? Some of us may give an accounting of all the good we've done and hope this is enough. It can be quite an impressive list!
Jesus, however, knows that one thing we treasure in our hearts above all. And...if it isn't Him...He will in love reveal the truth to us - that thing must be moved aside!
We like the story of the rich young man - because we may think that eternity awaits if we have no wealth - and for most of us, that is not a problem. But what if He tells us to give up our comfortable life near family and friends to share Him with a faraway group of strangers? Or what if He asks for our time to minister to orphans, widows, the sick, hurting? Is our comfort or time the thing that causes us to turn away sad and grieving?
Jesus knows that thing we treasure most in our heart - the thing that is our wealth. The thing we want to own and control.
And He is calling us to let go of it...let go and follow Him!
Christ is our forever treasure!
(Scripture: Mark 10:17-22)
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