Treasure

Growing up, one of our Christmas traditions was a treasure hunt. I was recalling this memory recently as I thought about treasure .
  One of us always had to hunt for something…and usually that something was a big gift to us. One year, my uncle sent all of us cousins on a treasure hunt of clues. Each clue was part of the puzzle and then we put it all together, only to have to solve a riddle. Long story short: he was taking us all toChicago for a weekend (the only time i have ever been there!). That was a treasure worth seeking.
  One year, mom sent me on a treasure hunt for my leather jacket. Also a big deal for me.

Sometimes, though, it was little things which were part of the treasure hunt. One year we sent mom on a treasure hunt for a trash can! (Which she totally loved!)

 The point is, seeking for treasure is fun. Everyone wants treasure. Everyone also wants to BE treasured.  I have pondered this much lately.

  To treasure is defined as:verb

1. 1.

   keep carefully (a valuable or valued item).

   synonyms:

   cherish, hold dear, prize, value greatly;

   
   

   We all want to feel that way. We all want to be treasured, cherished, held dear and valued greatly. To know that someone loves us that much to consider us treasure. Sometimes, though, society makes this difficult. 

   
   

    Society holds us to "values" which are unachievable, and puts worth in places where it does not belong, such as beauty, status,or  position in a company or even how much we do in general. And the more we are immersed in society, the harder it becomes to see treasure from God's perspective : the heart, relationship with Him, how we love others, and who HE is shaping us to be. 

   
   

    This year, I have been learning and re-learning the lesson that no matter how I feel about myself, or even how others may feel about me, I am treasured by God. This is a very difficult application to put into practice, I admit. I am not very good at remembering this day in and day out. But when I allow myself to seek God earnestly, just as I would seek a treasure, He reminds me that I am a treasure to Him. 

   
   

   In Psalm 139, we are told :  

          Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out;

       you formed me in my mother’s womb.
   I thank you, High God—you’re breathtaking!
       Body and soul, I am marvelously made!
       I worship in adoration—what a creation!
   You know me inside and out,
       you know every bone in my body;
   You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit,
       how I was sculpted from nothing into something.
   Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth;
       all the stages of my life were spread out before you,
   The days of my life all prepared
       before I’d even lived one day.

   17-22 Your thoughts—how rare, how beautiful!
       God, I’ll never comprehend them!
   I couldn’t even begin to count them—
       any more than I could count the sand of the sea.

   
   

   
   

   
   

   Now there are some treasured thoughts there…. 

   
   

   This is a lesson I have to remind myself of day in and out, but it's worth relearning over and over to catch a glimpse of just how much I am treasured by Him.