The Treasure Hunt

I’ve always been a treasure hunter at heart. When I was a young boy, I would often draw up treasure maps of our yard complete with drawings of the trees, rocks and other landmarks that we would find along the familiar path to the creek that ran behind our house. Somewhere on the map, I’d place a big X where I was sure that we would find hidden treasure. I had an excellent track record of pinpointing exactly where the treasure would be, and I chalked it up to a “gift” that God must have given me. In my young mind, I had loft notions of becoming the next “Indiana Jones”…my Explorer Name would have been “Kentucky Dave”…you get the idea.
Once the map was complete, I would round up my two younger brothers and my Dad and we would head off into the wild wilderness of our subdivision in hunt of the treasure. By the time we reached the rocky banks of the tiny creek behind our home, my heart would be racing with anticipation. I could almost taste the treasure! We would search the entire vicinity around the X on our map and then finally my Dad would say,
“Why don’t you boys go look in those rocks?”
“We’ve already looked over there, Dad.”
“I know, but I’ll bet if you look again, you’ll find the treasure.”
Sure enough, every time Dad pointed us someplace, we found treasure. It was typically a Ziplock baggie filled with candy or pennies and nickels. We would dance in celebration and run all the way home to pour our booty out on the kitchen table and proudly show Mom what her brave treasure hunters had found. We then divided it up into thirds and marveled at how the treasure always seemed to divide exactly evenly between the three of us. Ah…those were the days.
I guess you could say that I was a slow learner, because it was literally years after we outgrew the treasure hunting that I finally realized the obvious-it was my Dad who was putting the treasure there all along. My own map had nothing at all to do with the location of the treasure or the treasure itself. I thought all along that it was all about my skills and my instincts, but it wasn’t about me at all. It was all about my Father, and the only reason the treasure hunt had any significance at all is because I had taken the journey with him.
Recently, I’ve re-examined this magical season from my childhood and been humbled by the obvious parallels this treasure hunt has to our own walk with our Heavenly Father. Most of us are tempted to go through life and set our own course and then take full credit for whatever spoils we earn or find along the way, but in truth, the only reason why our lives have any significance at all is that we can choose to take the journey with our Heavenly Father. He is the one who can set the perfect course for our lives and He is the one who will guide along the path and He is the one who is the treasure that we find. Sure, we think the treasures are the trinkets of wealth and comfort that we may find along the way, but those tiny blessings are completely insignificant when compared to the treasure of knowing and finding God.