Articles
Buried Treasure
There is a show on TV right now about two men who are invited to different historical sites
to search for “buried treasure”. The show, Diggers, shows the two men searching a huge area of
field or forest with nothing but a shovel and metal detectors. As the two men walk along
searching different areas of the site, one’s mind may begin to wonder why they look in an empty
field where there are no buildings or markers of any sign. It literally looks as if nothing but grass
has ever been there. Eventually one of the men will get a “hit” on their metal detector and begin
to dig, and no matter what lies at the bottom of the hole, the men are always ecstatic about their
find. So much so, that many times they go running to the other person to share their find.
In the church today we have wandered away from the “Buried Treasure” that we once were
so excited to come across, and perhaps not so much physically or scripturally, but
enthusiastically. We ran to share our find with others, and told them of the joy we had for what
we had found. However, somewhere along the way, we no longer were captivated by the finds
that we came across, and we got to a point that when our detectors go off, we don’t even bother
digging the hole to see what is at the bottom.
Almost everyone knows Matt 7:7, “Ask and it shall be given unto you, seek and ye shall
find…” But the prophet Jeremiah had a different wording to the same principle, “You will seek
me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.” Jeremiah 29:13. The prophet knew that
anyone could “seek” God, but only those who truly wanted to find Him and know Him with all
their heart, would go to such great effort to get Him.
Those men on the TV show always donate what they find to the historical site which had
invited them. They simply receive the joy of finding long lost treasures for the world to see. Do
we as individuals, families and as a church give all our “Buried Treasure” back to God, or do we
refuse to dig to see what is at the bottom of the hole? ~ B. Johnson
