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High Value
High Value
A true treasure.
My daughter enjoys telling jokes, and she began to tell me this one the other day:
A man dies and with death greets him to usher him to heaven. The man is reluctant to leave something behind and begs death to allow him to bring this one thing to heaven with him. The angel of death explains that nothing from this life can be brought with him, but the man is insistent. Finally, death asks him what this one thing might be. The man grabs a heavy suitcase and tells death that this one suitcase is packed and ready to go. Death examines the suitcase, looks inside, then chuckles to himself as he closes the suitcase. He looks at the man and tells him that this is unnecessary, and that he would just be better off to leave it behind. The man insists that he will not move on without it, and death, still chuckling to himself, agrees to allow the man to bring the suitcase with him.
As they approached the pearly gates, the keeper at the gate asks what the man has with him as it is very unusual to have something from the world come with the soul. The man clutches the suitcase and tells how important it is to him and begs the gatekeeper to allow him to keep the suitcase. The gatekeeper tells him that heaven really is no place for worldly things but is interested in seeing what the man has. After convincing the man to open the suitcase, the gatekeeper is confused. Inside the suitcase were four large, twenty-four karat, pure gold bricks. The gate keeper asks, “Why are you bringing this worthless pavement?”
Naturally, this is a child’s tale meant to bring a smile, but the foolishness of the man is one we see in the bible as well. In Luke 12:16-21, a rich man was telling his own soul to relax, eat, drink and be merry because he had such great wealth. Jesus says in verse 20 that God tells him, “Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” The reality is that we will not be able to take anything with us, and we must lay up treasure in heaven.
That is easy to say and talk about, but what does it really mean? How do we put such an idea into practice? Monetary wealth and possessions are just a part of life. Even Jesus had a nice possession: his garment which his executioners cast lots for and a comment is made how high quality it is, being a single piece. You have to understand where true value is. Imagine a child in a burning building. If someone comes in and rescues the child, but does not rescue those gold bars in the safe, why was that decision made? What worldly value is there in a human being? Raw materials: about $600. Organs and other parts: a few hundred thousand on the black market. Some sort of slavery: again a few hundred thousand depending on the person. Isn’t a gold brick worth more than that? Or do we inherently understand that the soul of a human being has no value at all but is worth more than the term “price.”
What price can you put on love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, or self-control? Sure, you can pay someone to practice these things, but when it becomes a part of you, and you learn to benefit from them, what price do they have? The answer is none, but they are worth more than silver or … pavement.
Revelation 21:15-21 gives us a beautiful description of heaven. The beautiful gemstones, the streets of gold, the gates of a single pearl (the most valuable gemstone in the ancient world). All the things of the world are so worthless that they are, figuratively, common building materials in heaven.
True treasure is what is eternal. Jesus, in John 21:17 tells Peter simply to, “Feed My sheep.” The point was to keep focus and not lose the way again as he did before. We should all have such conviction, and a thought of how worthless all the things in this world we stress about truly are.
Lance Byers
10/19/2024
- High_Value_10-19-24.pdf (52.02 kB)
