hide and seek

Hide and seek is a great game to play with small children. You can tuck yourself away in the most obvious of places and they still have difficulty in discovering your whereabouts. Lie on the carpet in the middle of the front room and cover yourself with a blanket and have fun with the toddlers as they try to grasp the concept of trying to find you – priceless!

The world is always trying to find things – discover things. As the world’s resources become more and more depleted we are trying to find new ways of producing sustainable energy. At the same time gas and oil exploration continues. The nature programmes that are prevalent on our televisions are taken up with discovering and finding new species whether in jungles or deep under the oceans. We now have archaeology programmes to dig up and reconnect us with our history. Even the good old crime detective series are now awash with forensics and pathology, discovering the identity of the culprit through dna and other hidden clues.

Most of us are taken by the idea of discovering a hidden treasure. This has become so popular that TV programmes such as Antiques Roadshow, Dickinson’s Real Deal, Cash in the Attic and Treasure Hunt are hugely popular. And so we find ourselves this morning alongside the now indispensible ‘car boot sale’ hoping beyond all hope to find a plant in a pot for £1 and then to discover the pot in which the plant stands is worth £25,000, as happened recently!

Jesus tells us a story of a man who found treasure in a field. Perhaps he was out walking with his dog and as dogs are wont to do it began to dig where it saw the rabbit disappear from view. And there it was. He reburied the treasure, went and sold all that he had and bought the field so that the treasure was his. Jesus says the Kingdom of God is like that. It is not always obvious but when you come across it it is worth everything you have to possess. You can read it in Matthew ch13 v44. "The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.

Just a final thought, notice the joy he found. That was a discovery in itself. Discovering Jesus can lead to extraordinary joy. In Romans ch14 v17 it says of that kingdom that it is …… not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Now that sounds like something worth discovering and definitely the real deal!!