Real Treasure
by Lindsey Hanekom
One of my delights in life is spending some time walking along a beach and searching for beautiful shells. I don’t pick many up but each that I do attracts my attention somehow, even though it’s hard to explain why. It’s these shells that find their way back into my home where they are all collected together and displayed in a beautiful glass bowl.
This scripture tells us that God gives us hidden treasures, ready for us to discover and make a part of our daily lives. These treasures are to be collected in our hearts and minds. They are the richest of treasures as they give us the knowledge and understanding of who God is and who we are in Him.
One time somebody gave me an amazing shell for my collection; a shell that is very different from any of my others. It is a much rarer shell. But, as beautiful as it is, as rare as it is, and as much as I like this shell, it isn’t one of mine. It isn’t something I searched for and found. It isn’t something that caught my personal attention, and it actually distracts me from the rest of my collection.
It leads me to consider how many of these ‘rogue’ shells I have in the treasure collection of my heart. How much do I consider some thing to be true knowledge of God and myself because it looks great and seems to be valuable and yet it isn’t one of the treasures that God has provided for me?
Treasure, by its own definition, needs to be discovered, and discovery takes the sacrifice of time and sometimes money. The truth is it can’t really be treasure if it hasn’t been searched for and chosen by ourselves, with some level of personal cost and without us being personally involved in the finding of it.
We can be presented with all sorts of potential treasure (just as I find my shells amongst other shells). But it’s up to us, personally and individually, to pick out the truths that God has hidden for each one of us. This is the wonder and beauty of our relationship with Him, as we live our lives in discovery of who He is and who we are - His own, precious and unique children destined for a unique relationship with Him.
Prayer: Father God, thank You for all the treasures that You’ve hidden for me to discover in my life. Help me to remove any wrong thing from my heart that distracts from who You really are and who I really am. I look forward to discovering more of Your treasures, as I continue living my life with and for You. Amen.
Lindsey Hanekom Lindsey has worked at all of our UK centres over the years and has settled at Ellel Scotland with her husband, Johann and their two young children, Kyle and Zoe. As part of the Leadership Team at Ellel Scotland, Lindsey has a heart for the deeply broken as she oversees the prayer ministry and is an established and passionate teacher with Ellel. In her spare time, Lindsey enjoys the natural world, particularly the ocean, and is trained as a specialist medic to assist stranded and injured marine mammals.
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