Last night in the dead of sleep it came to me to look in the small attic above the stairs. I had made a cursory investigation there previously. As my wife will tell you, I often don't look as well as I should. You know the story, "Honey, could you look in the pantry and see if there is a can of tomato paste?' Like most men, if I don't see it on first observation, then of course, it must not be there. And, you guessed it, a moment later, with a frustrated look on her face, my wife opens the pantry and pulls out the tiny can of tomato paste hiding behind the larger can of crushed pineapple. Perhaps the same scene plays out at your home as well.
What woke me from a dead sleep last night, was the answer always given by my wife to my myopic searches. She always says to me, "Why don't you look like a woman?" Which in Deb-ese means, move things around and see what's behind them.
For some unknown reason, I realized that I should do just that in searching for my lost box of books. This morning, I set out to investigate the small attic. (It is amazing how many boxes of useless things can pile up in an attic). And yes, there behind empty shoe boxes and boxes of useless software, underneath old tax records were not one but three boxes of books that I knew I had not given away. To me this was like the best Christmas morning.
I bustled the boxes, which were clearly marked "books", downstairs and opened them up, not unlike a toddler tearing the wrapping off a Christmas present. In the second box, there were the books I had been longing to re-read. The titles, "So Great Salvation"; "Grace and Truth"; "Disciplined by Grace" peered back at me and I sat down and thanked God that they were not lost. (Understand, I am fairly confident, with no exaggeration, that over the years several hundred volumes of my library have been LOANED and never returned).
Like most men, curiosity overcame the moment, and I wondered what might be in the third box. It was in box number three that I discovered a true forgotten treasure. There between a 1947 edition of A.W. Tozer's "The Pursuit of God" and a paperback edition of C.S. Lewis' "The World's Last Night" was a small pleather bible cover zipped closed. Inside the zippered cover was a small Bible. I had completely forgotten about that little Bible. It had belonged to my father who had given it to me when I was a young boy.
It's a small Scofield Reference Edition of the King James Bible - too small for me to read without my cheaters today. On it's crisp India paper pages are notes and references from both my father and my younger self. [This is not the Bible he has been preaching and teaching from for the last 60 years. But it is a smaller version of the same. For those of you who know my father, you already know that many pages of this Bible are for all practical purposes, unreadable. He writes very small and seems to be able to fill the margins of even the smallest pages with notes, references, comments and illustrations] To me the treasures were just beginning to unfold.
On the blank pages inside the leather cover, both front and back, were notes and comments that to me, were priceless. There was the note I wrote to myself five minutes after my mom led me to Jesus ... "I was saved, February 4, 1975, 9:30 PM". Next to it the date February 2, 1983, the date I dedicated my life to Jesus to "whatever capacity He chooses and wherever He leads".
Filling the blank pages were other comments and quotes. Such as:
"A minority plus God makes a majority" - Glenn Armstrong
"Periodic Christianity is perpetual hypocrisy" - C.H. Spurgeon
"The most important part of prayer, the first 15 minutes after you say amen"
- author unknown
"There is no greater hindrance to true spirituality, than a superficial acquaintance with the language of Christianity from childhood" - Glenn Armstrong
"To believe that this world came into existence by blind chance, is the same as believing that Webster's unabridged dictionary came into being by an explosion in a printing factory" - author unknown
"Unless there is in us what is above us, we will soon succomb to what is around us" - author unknown
Finding that little Bible made my day, perhaps my week too. But, the purpose of sharing this simple story is to remind you of an even greater treasure that is available to those who seek it. Jesus gave a similar illustration in Matthew 13:44. Describing the Kingdom of Heaven, Jesus said:
“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." (ESV)
Have you found the Kingdom of Heaven? Do you know the forgiveness and life Jesus freely offers to everyone who comes to Him? As my wife Debbie reminds me, so I admonish you, "look like a woman". Be willing to move around anything in your life that hinders you from finding the Kingdom of Heaven, the greatest treasure of all!
