Matthew 13:44-46
The Special Merchant and His Pearls
44 “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.
45 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. 46 When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.
Acts 17:24-28
God is Not Far From Any One of Us
24 “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. 25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. 26 From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. 27 God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. 28 ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’
It seems we only see small glimpses of God or slices of His Presence...God is so complex and we only can see a tiny part of Him...For believers His Presence is of the greatest value...And feeling His Presence is something we want...The Kingdom of God's is where we want to be, and to go...When we have an experience with God, we value it...Sometimes this experience is hard to explain...The experience only hints of His being there...Yet, we feel something different...And we know He is always near...God is not far from any one of us...We sometimes have something very beautiful in our sight or in our possession and we do not realize its worth until it is gone or gone away...We can miss the splendor of great things, if we are not careful...It is good to know when we see and have something of great value...
We are reminded by Jesus that some of the best treasures are hidden, or at least we think they are hidden...Treasures that Jesus speaks of are of great value...They are sacredly precious...The fine pearls are like the salvation Jesus offers...The wise merchant was willing to sell and give up everything he has on earth to keep it...And the merchant knew what he had found...He had found a priceless treasure...He stopped his search for other treasures and in his joy he went and got this treasure...Then in his joy, He went and sold all he had...He gives us all he has for this one treasure...It was in joy that the merchant wanted this treasure...What a treasure, he had found?...The merchant knew this was the treasure of treasures...And although we cannot sell everything we have to have salvation, a price cannot be put on being close to Jesus and believing in Him...What would it take for you to sell everything you have?...What the merchant received in salvation and the kingdom of heaven is worth much more than the money he had to pay for this real treasure...