Lost and Found

Today’s scripture: Matthew 13:44-46 (ESV-text and audio) (KJV) (The Message) What might God be saying to me?

My thoughts (Robert Ferguson):

In studying the scripture for today, I came across several interpretations of these particular parables. It seems that there are many opinions as to exactly what the treasure is and who is doing the finding and sacrificing. Regardless, the imagery of finding an unexpected surprise in a field of dirt and weeds very comforting and reassuring to me.

One day after church a few years ago, I decided to visit the humane society. Sometimes its fun just to go look at all of the dogs and maybe even walk one. Lazily I toured through both the full grown dog room and the puppy room. Some were excited to see me while others barely even noticed I was there. There were sickly dogs, nervous dogs, hyper dogs, old stoic senior dogs, and loud yappy puppies.

However, there was one dog who calmly eyed me as I walked closer to her cage. She didn’t jump up to greet me and she didn’t growl at my presence. She just sat there calmly and looked me straight in the eye. Her name was Renny and she was a beautiful black lab with one one white paw. I wanted to take her home, she seemed so calm. It was almost as if she was simply waiting for me to come by and pick her up.

Unfortunately, she had a tag on her cage that said she wasn’t ready for adoption just yet. And truth be told, maybe I am not ready to be a dog daddy just yet. As I was leaving, I read the signs explaining that to adopt a puppy would cost $150.00 — not an enormous amount of money, but not free either. I decided that I would gladly pay that for a companion like Renny. In the midst of all the yapping and barking dogs, Renny had stood out as special to me; so much so that here a week and some days later she stays on my mind.

In many ways, the parable today reminds me of that experience. In this existence of seemingly infinite humanity, God sees you and me as uniquely special, beautiful individuals; so much so that the ultimate price was paid for our lives.

So often in the world we seem relegated to our social security numbers and our work identification numbers. How can an infinite and omniscient God care about me? There are hundreds of millions of me’s running all over creation.

But when God sees you through the eyes of Christ you become something very different. God says you are a treasure, like a one-of-a-kind pearl whose value is beyond any numerical combination. So today, remember that you may feel like just another puppy in the pound or another rat in the rat race, but God says you are a precious jewel, found!

Thought for the day: I am God’s jewel, God’s ‘pearl of great value’.

We encourage you to include a time of prayer with this reading. If you need a place to get started, consider the guidelines on the How to Pray page.