On Finding Hidden Treasure

The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.
Matthew 13:44

This verse gives one of the best pictures of how I personally came to meet and be transformed by Jesus Christ. There are three words/phrases in particular from this verse that jump out to me because of how they relate to my life: hidden, treasure/joy, sells all.

Hidden

I grew up in a family that went to church every Sunday. But even though I spent my entire childhood going to church and hearing sermons from the Bible that spoke about the kingdom of God and Jesus Christ, who is the King of that kingdom, the kingdom of heaven remained hidden to me for 19 years of my life. I couldn’t see it. I saw religion. But I didn’t see the kingdom of heaven. I didn’t know it then, but the two are not the same thing.

My family went to church every Sunday but it felt like we pretty much ignored God every other day of the week. Or at least I did. The best picture I can give of the place God had in my life was that God was the foundation underneath everything. Yes I believe that God exists. Yes I believe that He created the world. But He wasn’t a significant part of my day-to-day life. The reason I saw God this way is because the truth of the kingdom of heaven was hidden from me. I was like the man in this parable before he made the greatest discovery of his life.

But even during those years growing up, I remember clearly that there were times when I would think to myself, “There has to be more to Christianity than just showing up at church on Sundays.” There has to be more to the kingdom of heaven than just this. God was hidden to me, but even then He was preparing me for what I would find.

Treasure/Joy

I was born to a family of two immigrants from Kenya who worked really hard to give my siblings and me the best life possible. And so one of the most important things I learned from them was the value of hard work if I wanted to be successful. And so from as early on as I can remember, I worked really hard. I got really good grades in school because I wanted to be successful. I got really good grades so that I could get into a good college, so that I could get a really good job, so that I could make lots of money and be successful. And so even though I didn’t know it then, I had made money and success my treasure. I know that money and success were my treasure because everything in my life revolved around doing whatever it takes to get that money and success: all the studying I did, all the late nights, and even at times cheating on a test so that I could get a better grade.

And I think one of the reasons that the kingdom of heaven remained hidden to me while I was growing up is because I knew in my heart that God didn’t want me to make success my treasure. And so I avoided him and I ignored him because I thought that if I listened to God, he would take away my joy because he would take away my treasure. But what I didn’t realize was that God’s goal wasn’t to take away my joy. God’s goal was to increase my joy. God’s goal wasn’t to take away my treasure and leave me with nothing. God’s goal was to give me an even greater treasure than money and success. And what I came to learn was that God doesn’t just have treasure to give me. God Himself is the treasure that gives me joy and satisfaction above all things.

Sells All

My sophomore year in college I began going to a Bible study with some other students who lived in my dorm and it was there in those Bible studies that it was like a veil was lifted from my eyes as we studied the life and teachings of Jesus. Even though I had heard the stories before, it was during that year that I saw the kingdom of heaven for the first time. I saw that Jesus Christ was God and that He was the King of this kingdom and He began to change the way I thought about school, about money, about my life, about everything.

But He wasn’t just calling me to change my thinking. He was calling me to leave behind my former treasures so that He could become my treasure. He was calling me to sell everything in order to have Him. I know that it may seem crazy to think that Jesus would call us to give up everything in order to follow him. But not if the things you are giving up are less valuable than the things you are getting in exchange. None of us would insist on keeping our really nice Honda Civic if we knew we could have a much nicer Mercedes instead. For me, the reason why selling everything has been worth it to follow Jesus is because the joy that I have in treasuring Him is so much greater than any joy I’ve ever experienced. That’s what it means to treasure something. You would trade everything to have it. And Jesus is better than a Mercedes.

So money and success are no longer what my life revolves around. My life doesn’t revolve around doing whatever it takes to get them. But instead Jesus Christ is my treasure. My life revolves around knowing Him, loving Him, enjoying Him, and trying to make Him known to as many people as possible.

Thank You, Father, for bringing me to Stanford University, of all the places in the world, as the field where I would “stumble” upon hidden treasure, when I had gone there looking for something else altogether. Jesus, You’re everything, my Treasure of infinite worth.