“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. Matthew 13.45 -
A combination of time in lockdown and personal circumstances has recently meant I’ve been sorting through longstanding family items. Often it takes considerably longer then I expect as a particular item triggers memories and I reminisce for a few minutes. Occasionally I come across an item that is not only memorable, but potentially quite valuable. That can seem to be the height of my search and at that point I am excited and delighted.
A recent example was finding a gold sovereign dated back to the era of Queen Victoria set within an old silver locket on a silver chain. Not only was there the family connection which is an important one, but the combination of the locket and coin set within it was quite unusual, and a ”first” for the Jeweller whilst the gold sovereign inside it added considerably to its value.
That got me thinking about Matthew chapter 13 and the search for pearls. In that story the merchant when he finds the most important object gets carried away and focuses solely upon it. I took two lessons from that story. Firstly, in the pursuit of holiness and our personal walk of faith, we should be single minded as that merchant was. When he found true treasure, he pursued it to the exclusion of everything else.
However, there is also a warning here I think for us as well. We must make sure our identification and focus and pursuit of treasure, is for the right treasure! The comparison between a valuable pearl in Matthew chapter 13 and the Kingdom of Heaven is an obvious one as Jesus makes the comparison himself. The responsibility for each of us however is to make sure that when we pursue the Kingdom of Heaven, we genuinely focus on the real thing and not what we would like it to be or another affection of our hearts.
Kevin Borrett
Elder
August 2021
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