Those who trust in the LORD are as secure as Mount Zion; they will not be defeated but will endure forever.
Just as the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the LORD surrounds his people, both now and forever. (Psalm 125:1-2 (NLT2)
If you have ever attempted walking atop a stone wall, you know that the stones are unevenly positioned. Maintaining balance is untenable and is akin to walking a rail on a railroad track. At some point one finds oneself stepping or falling off on one side or the other. The best way to stay on a fence is to straddle it, but that is both uncomfortable and accomplishes nothing. It gets one nowhere.
But we do “straddle” fences when we have indecisive thoughts, opinions, and actions, when we delay, neglect, or ignore ideas or circumstances because we don’t care or are intellectually lazy, information is incomplete or unclear and conflictual, or the process and/or outcomes seem unimportant. Indecision frequently just delays an inevitable and accomplishes little except anxiety. However, there is one decision which we are all called to make and for which there is no neutral position or compromise.
The Bible gives a fascinating account about conflict between God’s prophet Elijah and Israel’s King Ahab, who was Jezebel’s husband and who considered Elijah a “troublemaker.” (1 Kings 18) This was one of those crucial moments in Israel’s history when they had not completely rejected God but wanted to straddle the fence and claim God but not as the only god. Some of Elijah’s controversy with Ahab revolved around Ahab’s role in leading Israel into idolatrous worship and practices. Maybe the people were superstitiously hedging their bets among gods or were unaware that being a chosen nation meant declaring God’s glorious character to the nations? Maybe they enjoyed the unholy practices of worshipping Baal? Whatever their reasons, Elijah confronted Israel’s double-mindedness and hard hearts. He “came near to all the people and said, “How long will you go limping between two different opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.” And the people did not answer him a word. (1 Kings 18:21)
The people were spiritually compromised and in a tenuous position with God. They had no integrity but were limping back and forth between religious beliefs. A decision about God was necessary. Who was He, and what did He have to do with them? As they wavered and hobbled between two opinions, they faced disaster. Their indecisiveness was their decision. God would not bless their unfaithfulness and doublemindedness.
This determination about the existence and nature and purposes and importance of God in history and in personal life faces everyone. Intellectual honesty demands that we seek an informed decision about God. Creation declares Him and requires a response. (Psalm 19:1; 50:6; 97:6) (Romans 1:17-20) Morality leads us to Him as the source of moral behavior and what is good for us.(Exodus 20:1-17, Psalm119) Our spirit, our God consciousness, yearns for truth and desires God. (Ecclesiastes 3:11) The life, claims, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ deserve an intense investigation. (Acts 16:31 and Romans 4:25) Our eternal destinies are determined by our conclusions. (Hebrews 9:27) And there is no pleasing God apart from belief. (Hebrews 11:6)
Doubt about God, if not pursued, becomes a decision in itself. Agnosticism is essentially unbelief. So, it is important to consider the evidences because we all fall on one side or the other of this issue. There is a Biblical promise that a God-seeking mind will discern and discover what is true. (Matthew 7:7,8) However, one has to search in the right places. The sixty six books of Scripture claim to be God’s living revealed Word, which helps us distinguish our self awareness (who we are and our wants) from our God awareness (who He is and His desires). It draws us into an honest evaluation of ourselves in relation to God. Christ told those who had no faith in him that the Scriptures are where they would find out the truth about him because they point to him. (John 5:36-47)
Seeking truth is the spiritual challenge of a life time. A good starting point on this journey is reading the gospels of Mark or John while asking God to reveal Himself. Many have walked this trek from skepticism. Reading their stories may be helpful as well. Lee Strobel, an investigative journalist, wrote The Case for Faith , and C.S. Lewis, Philip Yancey, Josh McDowell, and Ravi Zacharias are contemporary authors who share their interesting faith-journeys.
The point is that we cannot walk through this life without making either an informed or uninformed but crucial decision about God. We cannot ride the fence.
Turkeys, which had been extinct in Maine since colonial days until they were very successfully reintroduced here in 1977, always remind me of the traditional Thanksgiving turkey dinner, of hunting with my Dad, of family gatherings, of reading Henry W. Longfellow’s The Courtship of Miles Standish in the 8th Grade, of pilgrims, of funny hats, and of Native Americans sharing that first New World harvest dinner which included lobster and venison. That was nearly 400 years ago in 1621!!
And Thanksgiving reminds me of grace!
Fall and winter holidays may be difficult, depressing and isolating for some. Not everyone harbors happy memories, and this pandemic season has been especially stressful. Sorrow and grief for loss of loved ones, social isolation, mourning financial setbacks, and anxiety regarding health, national unrest, and uncertain futures may be foremost in our minds. Maybe our greatest blessing this year is a special memory. But regardless of our circumstances, we can be thankful for grace!
Not everyone believes in or is thankful to God, but everyone can be thankful. At our family dinners, it is customary to offer thanks to God for the good food and loving relationships that we share and for all the ways we have been blessed. Those “graces” are expressions of God’s grace to us. Interestingly, Scripture tells us nobody escapes God’s grace, which is His favor and fairness toward us even when we are undeserving. He is a constant source of “common grace”, the general goodness to all people. “Whatever is good and perfect comes down to us from God our Father, who created all the lights in the heavens. He never changes or casts a shifting shadow.” (James 1:17 (NLT2)
That concept of God and His grace deserves much more consideration than a Thanksgiving prayer. It is the Amazing Grace whose sweet sound we hear and sing. It is God’s love, forgiveness, kindness, and care for unworthy humanity in rebellion against Him. It is God’s redemptive gift to undeserving sinners through faith in His Son. (Ephesians 2:8-9) It is equality in Christ, where race, color, creed, social status, IQ, and difficult relationships make no difference.
Every believer has been the object of grace and should be living it. Jesus made that very evident when he explained what God is like and what his followers should be like by administering undeserved, unconditional care, and kindness: “But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike (Matthew 5:44-45 (NLT2)
Although we live in an increasingly divisive, entitled and ungracious culture, it yearns for a grace it doesn’t understand. We claims to value equality and tolerance but do so with blind hypocrisy and words only. Grace is difficult work because it requires selfless choices, honors others above oneself, and abstains from the arrogance of moral superiority. Grace listens, attempts to understand opposing ideas, is not intellectually arrogant, does not tightly hold onto hurt, forgives rather than accuses, lifts up and encourages, does not shame or degrade, self-evaluates bias and prejudices and refuses discrimination, tolerates rather than demands, is compassionate instead of critical, avoids gossip and slander, doesn’t lash out when frustrated, goes the extra mile, turns the other cheek and does not retaliate! Grace loves with 1 Corinthian 13 love.
Grace is a tall order! We are all imperfect and battle negative attitudes that cause us to act badly. But in the perspective of what God has done for us, Thanksgiving is a great time to remember and gratefully accept His grace and to recommit to live in its power.
This fisherman, heading for his boat on a dull, blustery, fall day with rising winds and heightened waves, reminds me of Psalm 107 where “Some went down to the sea in ships…” This Psalm lifts us out of our dilemmas and trials by pointing us to God’s sovereignty and redemptive power over all His creation, to His consistently constant love for humanity, and to His tremendous patience with us.
The Psalmist parades us through an array of metaphors about different people-types who are in distressing situations, who have special spiritual needs, and for whom God miraculously intervenes when entreated. God’s huge capacity for grace is displayed as He deals with human brokenness.
“Some went down to the sea in ships, doing business on the great waters…” These live in a big, unpredictable, and dangerous world where stormy seas buffet them with unexpected trials and stresses. Perturbed and frightened, they grapple against overwhelming odds as waves “mount to the heavens”. Overtaken with doubts and reeling with fear and anxiety, their “courage melts”. They reach the end of their abilities and strength before finally reaching out to God, who is waiting to hush the raging storms, bring peace to the exhausted, and land them where they long to be. (their “desired haven”)
“Some wandered in desert wastes, finding no way to a city to dwell in…” These “hungry and thirsty, their soul fainting within them” people are restless, roving aimlessly in spiritual waste lands in search of fulfillment. They have no map, no guide. They are directionless until they find God, who sets them on a different path, a “new lane”, a “straight way”, taking them from arid deserts to the places they desire, where their spirits will flourish with purpose and sing with joy. He fills the wanderers’ “souls with good things.”
“ Some sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, prisoners in affliction…” These spiritually insubordinate sit immobilized and imprisioned “in darkness and in the shadow of death” because they “rebel against the words of God,” and “spurn the counsel of the Most High”. They arrogantly reject God’s guiding wisdom which would free them from bondage . Their fate is a death sentence. Realizing their lost, hopeless state, they repent and call for God’s “help”. He bursts the bonds and shatters the fetters, freeing them from their recalcitrant attitudes and behaviors, enlightening their understanding, giving them hope, and changing their mindset from anarchy to worship.
“Some were fools through their sinful ways, and because of their iniquities suffered affliction…” The folly of willful, destructive behaviors leads to spiritual oppression and afflictions. Living on the edge and near to “the gates of death”, these foolish people are desperately ill and need healing “because of their “sinful ways”. But when they call to God, He is waiting and “heals” their iniquities and afflictions. Delivered from destruction, He gives them “new life” and welcomes them into the joy of a living relationship with Him.
Every person in this Psalm is in serious trouble until they realize that they need God. Every person in this Psalm is overwhelmed and powerless until “They cry to the LORD in their trouble, and He delivers them from their distress.” Every person in this Psalm is tossed a lifeline and delivered from their desperation. Every person in this Psalm is one of us.
Some truths running through this song are that God is Sovereign, that He deals patiently, graciously and justly with humanity, that He know what is best for us, that He holds the best solutions, that if we want to live the way we really want to live-forgiven and free, loved and secure, and with spiritual integrity and a sense of joy and purpose- then we must know, trust, listen to and submit to God and His wisdom. He is the Way, the Guide, the Physician, the Light, and the Strength who intervenes, redeems, guides and restores us. Scripture, is our lifeline because it “discerns the thoughts and intentions of the heart” and keeps us honest about ourselves and our need for redemption. This Psalmist says God guides in a “straight way” and through “counsel” , and as He speaks, He enlightens and renews. He “heals” and “delivers” whomever, wherever, and whenever they seek Him. Scripture directs us to Christ, the one who saves.
This Psalm is a wonderful, celebratory song of the redeemed. It lifts one up to universal hope which is found in God’s abundant grace. Hope for those without hope. Hope for the obstinate, the proud, the doubters, and the willfully disobedient. Hope for the lost. And hope for the spiritually oppressed. Even though our choices and circumstances change us, they don’t change God. He is always only a prayer away.
“Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever! Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, whom he has redeemed from trouble.” (Psalm 107:1-2)
Old potato houses and imposing barns contribute to the charm and mystique of Aroostook County’s farming country. Often in disrepair and forgotten, they still hold treasures, not treasures of harvest but troves of memories and tales of generations of hard working owners. Their emptiness still echoes with laughter of children jumping from the rafters into the hay and with remembrances of bountiful or meager harvests, of dreams fulfilled or shattered, of some good and some difficult days. They speak of valuing and working the land.
Jesus once told a parable about a rich man who faced a quandary. (Luke 12:13-34) His barn was too small. He had no room to contain the superabundant harvest that had been gathered. So, he had a reasonable question. “What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?” Regrettably, his initial and only answer was self-indulgence. “I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.”
That response to our universal inner need for happiness and security, was misguided. There was a disconnect between what he thought would satisfy his soul and what he should have known would. As a Jew, this man should have known Old Testament teachings about tithing and the observance of harvest festivals and about sacrifices that expressed gratitude to God for the abundances of life. He would have known the moral law, God’s Commandments, the essence of which Jesus condensed into loving God with all one’s being and one’s neighbor as oneself. He would have understood that God loves the poor and disenfranchised and wants justice for all. Somehow, none of this meaningful tradition or teaching had reached his heart. He had no sense of moral obligation to others or gratitude and love for God. He had no aptitude for “giving back.” As a result, his self talk (“I will say to my soul”) told him several lies about the deep desires of his soul! He believed he could nourish his spirit with “ample goods”, that joy and security could be found in the temporal, that the more he had the happier and safer he would be.
Belief in self sufficiency and his deficient understanding of his need for God caused our farmer to miss out on life’s true meaning, which God explained to him. “… one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” “ … life is more than food, and the body more than clothing.” Life is about “being rich toward God,” not about treasure hoarding !
We all need God‘s generosity. Without Him, there would be nothing “good”; Our lives would be very dark.(James 1:17) Life is meant to be about desiring Him and being like Him. A life that treasures God will care about the things God cares about, and He cares about humanity! Remember, our parable teller is Jesus, who is our example for living as God created us to and is also God’s expression of His love for us. Because of Jesus’ selfless sacrifice for our sins, redemption and restoration to a relationship with God can be ours. Jesus said evidence of that relationship would be to follow his command to love–our brothers, our neighbors, the afflicted, the poor, the disenfranchised, the weak and lowly. (John 13:34)
We have every reason to live thankfully and generously. Our spiritual barns are full! He has lavished His love on us so that we can love others lavishly, has blessed us so others may be blessed by us, has given us much so that we may give much, has extended us grace so we can dispense it to others. Living generously and investing in the lives of others does not create an alliance with God, but its absence reveals a lack of that relationship. And placing God’s priorities above ours will bring soul-satisfaction. If we “Delight (ourselves) in the LORD, he will give (us) the desires of (our) heart”. (Psalm 37:4)
Wealth had become the farmer’s idol. It had displaced God. So, God spoke. He did not say that wealth is evil or that it should not to be enjoyed but stressed that man’s soul is eternal and cannot be sustained by temporal things and that arrogant disregard or unbelief in God is unforgiveable! Ingratitude, greediness, anxious miserliness which prevents sacrificing and sharing blessings with those in need imply absense of believe in God. We rob Him of our trust and and fail our neighbors. Such attitudes speak to the state of one’s soul.
Unfortunately, our rich man made another mistake which many of us make; he hoarded for a future he did not have. “.. God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?‘ Life has no guarantees except an ending and an eternity to look forward to! God called him a “fool” because he was not spiritually prepared for either living or dying. He had not included God in his plans.
Christ ended his parable with these words, “ Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” (Luke 12:33-34)
Our lives are meant for ultimate meaning in the context of what God wants for us. Seeking God and living with grateful and generous hearts give added value to this life and fulfill the promises of eternal treasures.
No matter what corner of the world in which we reside and despite what has transpired during our “today”, wherever and whenever the sun sets, the day’s end is announced by a fleeting but stunningly beautiful, soul-touching pause.
Between the busyness of our day’s events and the “coming to terms with” them, the splendor of reflecting and refracting light pulls our eyes heavenward. Self-awareness is suspended for an awe inspiring moment when astonishing beauty slows life and lifts spirits. The sky silently speaks, declaring the magnificence of Someone greater than us. He has “set His glory above the heavens”(Psalm 8:1), and we have just had a tiny glimpse of that glory!
From the rising of the sun to the place that it sets , the Name of the Lord is to be praised. (Psalm 113:3)
Helen Hunt Jackson’s October’s Bright Blue Weather opines the beauty of October skies: “O suns and skies and clouds of June and flowers of June together, Ye cannot rival for one hour October’s bright blue weather.”
My grammar school teacher used this and other poetry to teach us penmanship and literature at the same time. However, either inadvertently or intentionally, she missed an opportunity to present a history lesson about suffering. Helen Hunt Jackson was an activist who wrote a book about the government’s mistreatment of Native Americans, who suffered greatly as they lost their lands and were shunted off to reservations.
Our world is tortured by conflict and control issues that result in suffering. We have great wealth and resources. Yet, not everyone benefits from them because human greed, hatred, bigotry, untoward and unrestrained passions, negligence, ignorance and apathy result in the injustices of hunger, poverty, abuse, and racism. Those ills lie at our door. We are to blame for much of the suffering in this world!
Although we may not be responsible for inherited predispositions or freak accidents, natural disasters, surprising illnesses, and unexpected deaths, we still philosophize and theorize and seek explanations for suffering beyond the fact that we are fragile earthlings living in a broken world. In the end, there is a big question mark looming, or we face God and who He is! And who we are!
That was Job’s dilemma. When he suffered overwhelming personal losses and felt unjustly treated by God, he self-righteously used imagery of a leaf being blown in the wind to express that God was senselessly wasting God’s time looking for Job’s sins and even dredging up his old youthful indiscretions. “For you write bitter things against me and make me inherit the iniquities of my youth “Will you frighten a driven leaf and pursue dry chaff?” (Job 13:24-26 (ESV)
The Biblical book of Job is a fascinating story of God and man interacting in life’s physical, intellectual and spiritual realms. Job was so convinced that he was entitled to better treatment that he demanded an audience with God to justify himself and implied that God was harassing, mistreating, and avoiding him. God had made a mistake!! We can relate. We resent suffering. It is ugly and unfair! We cannot make sense of it! We don’t believe that disastrous things should happen to good people. We may feel that suffering is a sign of God’s negligence or disapproval, that He is capable of horrible mistakes. So we are annoyed with God!
Eventually, God gave Job an audience, but it didn’t go as Job thought it would. Not only was Job’s theology challenged, but his character, not God’s, came into question! Instead of giving explanations, God peppered Job with questions about the physical world he inhabited. He was not looking for scientific explanations from Job but wanted him to look beyond the science of his observations and conclusions to the ubiquitous “whys” of the cosmos.
Job “got it”! He was out of his league and had overstepped His bounds. He had neither God’s perspective or power or purposes or knowledge. Worst of all, he realized he had not known the arrogance of his own heart. “Then the LORD said to Job, “Do you still want to argue with the Almighty? You are God’s critic, but do you have the answers?” Then Job replied to the LORD, “I am nothing—how could I ever find the answers? I will cover my mouth with my hand. I have said too much already. I have nothing more to say.”(Job 40:1-5(NLT2)
So, God took Job deeper– into thoughts of the moral universe where Job clearly realized that he had no clue about ultimate justice nor did he have the moral make up or authority to judge God or others! And he could not save himself! In remorse, he repented. He was nowhere near as righteous as he supposed! (read Job 40:7-14, Job 42:1-6)
“I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. ‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’ Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.
It may seem trite to some, and offensive to others, but there will always be “things” beyond human comprehension. “Unjust” suffering is one of those things that casts a shadow and raises doubt in our belief. However, attributing evil to God is a grievous mistake because evil is the antithesis of God’s nature which is holy, pure, good, righteous, faithful, gracious and merciful, steadfast in love, unchanging and eternal. If we look closely, we may get to see the threads of redemption and justice amidst our suffering–forgiveness and reconciliation, a reprioritizing of life issues, a maturing of character with increased compassion or patience or empathy, or the discovery of God and His peace, and a new confidence that God in some way is redeeming our evil situation of suffering. He understands, and He is able! He turned the death of Christ into a glorious resurrection that gives salvation with eternal hope to all humanity who choose to believe.
If atrocities happened to the perfect Son of God, and God suffered but turned hatred into love and made extraordinary good from it, He can enter our circumstances and redeem them with eventual, ultimate justice. That is a beautiful promise and wonderful hope!.
What can be more mind-clearing and reorienting than a brisk walk on a cool fall day to an isolated Maine sand beach where the stark and vast beauty of creation and the salty smell of the sea mingle with the awareness there is One present who knows and cares and has good plans for you! Even the grains of sand are reminders of His care!
“You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.
How precious are your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered!
I can’t even count them; they outnumber the grains of sand! …” (Psalm 139:7 16-18)
Do you ever wonder what people might be thinking as they sit mesmerized by the rising surf and rhythmic pounding of breakers slamming the rocky coast or by waves gently lapping the shores of an in-land lake or by long, open vistas of plains and mountain and valleys? Do they see beyond the glories of nature as Max Planck (Nobel Prize laureate in Physics) intimated that scientists do? He was quoted as saying, “…we always look for the basic thing behind the dependent thing, for what is absolute behind what is relative, for the reality behind the appearance and for what abides behind what is transitory.”
While observing the powerful workings of nature, the Psalmist heard God’s voice: “Be still, and know that I am God. ( Psalm 46) Unexpectedly being confronted with creation’s glory and “bigness” may induce strong emotions and an awareness of God. But not everyone hears that voice! Atheists have no room for God in their words or their equations and theories about creation. Scientists struggle with interpretive difference about what scientific data means regarding the structure, order and origins of the cosmos. Some Evolutionists and Creationists attempt to find middle ground for the creative process. Philosophers and social scientists probe the development and debate the purposes, ethics, and behaviors of mankind-sometimes from personal bias. But all marvel and desire to know the how and why of the earth and its inhabitants!
Old Testament patriarch and prophets were overwhelmed by the glories of creation and saw them as mighty manifestations of God and his power to save them. (Deuteronomy 10:14, 3326-27) Job discovered the incomparable wisdom of God through consideration of nature.(Job 38-40) Isaiah believed creation to be proof of the existence of God. (Isaiah 40) The Psalmists repeatedly marveled at the strength and orderliness of nature and responded with gratitude and joy because they knew their mighty Creator was steadfast and loving and powerful and could grant them their prayers and forgive their transgressions. (Psalm 65:1-2) And the Apostle Paul said that creation makes plain not only God’s existence but demonstrates His power and divine nature. (Romans 1:19-20)
We are awed and humbled by our vast and magnificent world, but what do we see when we look into the huge expanses of space, or stand before the vast wonders of the earth, or probe the strange world of ocean depths? When Jeremiah looked “for the reality beyond the appearance,” he saw God and exclaimed ,”It is he who made the earth by his power, who established the world by his wisdom, and by his understanding stretched out the heavens.” (Jeremiah 10:12)
Do we think about the mysteries of a Creator who can form both expansive galaxies and tiny beautiful flowers or engineer the complexities of a human cell and a weird looking fish? Do we look deep beyond the glory and see God’s power, wisdom, and understanding in our surroundings and circumstances?
Maine is a beautiful “kingdom” in a beautiful part of the world. Some of Maine’s allure is buried in Aroostook County’s beautiful, rolling fields which yield their treasures as they begin to produce their fruit: oats and barley, potatoes and broccoli , alfalfa and canola.
In Matthew 13, Jesus told a series of parable about the Kingdom of heaven. Among those stories is a short but profound, one verse parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.( Matthew 13:44)
As with all parables, the intent is that one insert oneself into it and discover the personal application. We easily identify with this one because we are all searching for something that we think will be personally rewarding. King Solomon said that God has set “eternity” in or hearts! So, what could be more rewarding than finding the Kingdom of heaven? It seems we were made for that!
The man in the parable undoubtedly was restless and not quite satisfied. He was seeking something of more value than what he had, something that would bring greater meaning or purpose or joy to his life. Maybe, he didn’t know quite what he was looking for but knew it had to exist and was hidden from him; it was not obvious or identifiable or immediately available.
It isn’t clear how long or how far or how hard this fellow looked for this treasure. Maybe he just stumbled upon it! But we do know the treasure was discovered in a specific field. We do know he was a “man”; so, he had the power to reason and decide and choose. Interestingly, upon discovery, he did not act immediately; he “covered (it)up”; he thought about it, considered it. Then “eureka!” The impact of his discovery hit him. He realized, this was it! This was what he had searched for. It was a treasure of such great proportion that he joyfully gave all that he had to attain it. He gave up his old life for a new one! He had found the kingdom of heaven!
Christian faith is like that, isn’t it? It is a process of search and discovery, of seeking and consideration, of coming to believe not only in God but that he holds the treasures of life. For some, there is a prepared heart that receives the immediate reality and impact of the Gospel’s Good News when it is discovered. For others, faith is a long process of revelation and realization, but Jesus had said at the beginning of his ministry that those who “seek will find”, those who “knock” will have the door opened to them to a kingdom where faith is lived out joyfully under God’s authority.
The field in this parable is the world, the treasure is the Kingdom of Heaven. Christ once said that one could gain the whole world but lose his soul and that life in the Kingdom is one of self-denial, of taking up one’s cross daily and following Christ, who shows and provides the way into the Kingdom through his teaching and his sacrifice for us. That realization became the reason for our treasure hunter’s commitment.
The Kingdom is waiting to be found by those who will commit to its truths.
Sweet Words from Maine