Treasure

Lauren Scouse found treasure in Tescos. Earlier this month the Portsmouth mother opened a box of eggs she’d bought at the supermarket to discover £5, and an anonymous note wishing the finder a happy new year. ‘I thought it was lovely,’ said Lauren.

According to a new survey commissioned by the mineral water company Evian, city commuters worn down by the stress of being packed into trains and the Tube are also finding unexpected treasure - the power of a stranger’s smile to lift their mood.

And I’ve been reading Treasure, a great wee book published by the Scottish Book Trust to mark the recent Scottish Book Week. It contains pieces of writing by both established and amateur writers who each describe something which they treasure.

Most of the items mentioned – among them a T-shirt, and old camera, a historic record player, a piece of concrete from a demolished house – are treasured as precious links with the writer’s past, or as recalling someone much loved. They are valuable because they symbolise what once was.

I suppose the symbols which Christians treasure (the cross, bread and wine) and perhaps the momentos of our own personal faith story (a photo of our baptism, maybe, an old Bible which meant a lot to us)  work like this, reminding us of the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and of our own faltering journey in his footsteps.

There’s a difference though. The loved one of whom precious heirlooms speak may remain alive in our hearts and memories, but in a real sense they have passed on. In contrast the symbols of Christianity remind us of a Jesus who not only was in our dimension, but is and will be, alive and accompanying us on our journey.

The Treasures book is subtitled ‘What do we treasure most?’ Reading it prompts this question ‘What makes something valuable?’ You’d be offered little at the pawn shop for many of the items mentioned despite their great value to those who treasure them. In other words it’s the attitude we bring to something, and the memories it evokes which determines how valuable it is to us.

Stuff like gold, precious stones, works of art are judged to be valuable not just because of their rarity, but because society sets great store by them.

Jesus frequently challenged his audience ‘What do you consider to be valuable? What do you treasure most?’ He encourages us to treasure things which are precious because God values them – love, goodness, integrity, food and drink and wildlife and beauty and sunshine and  relationships and people. Ultimately, Jesus challenges us to treasure God above all other treasures.

Jesus also teaches that whatever we may say we treasure, what is actually most precious to us is the things we commit our lives to pursuing. We should, he warns, be careful what treasure we seek, because our chosen treasure shapes us and our destinies.

I may go all out for wealth, position, recognition, sexual satisfaction things which are not in themselves necessarily harmful but which if I pursue them exclusively will destroy me. As I grasp these goals, the treasure turns to dust in my hands.

Or I can in my moments of clarity treasure the God who is there, and pursue the treasures which God purses – love, goodness, integrity and all the rest. These are treasures which enrich both those who seek them and those whose lives the seeker blesses.

Whatever treasure we are enjoying, the quest for it involves the whole of our lives from the biggest plans to the smallest details. That £5 in an egg box. The smile on the Tube. These are gifts from those who, in the moment of giving at least were seeking the best kind of treasure.

The secret about treasure is that only by seeking it and receiving it afresh every day will it remain treasure. If we take God’s gifts for granted, or see them as our right, or forget the Person who gives them their significance, they will lose their wonder.

Jesus often startles us by turning things on their head, and it does it with this treasure-seeking stuff, saying something like ‘By the way, you do realise that each one of you is infinitely precious to God?’

And I believe that despite all our struggles, all the times of darkness, all the unanswered questions, we will if we watch, and listen, and discern, hear God whispering to us in endlessly creative ways: ‘I love you.’

In the Tesco aisle, in the crowded train, in the still calm of evening, in the words on the poster outside the church, in the kindness of strangers. ‘I love you! Each one of you has a page in the book of my treasures.’

(Christian Viewpoint column from the Highland News dated 23rd January 2014)