A SPECIAL TREASURE

How was your week? Have you gotten out and enjoyed life; enjoyed time with friends? I just came back from the cabin after spending a much needed time “away from it all” with some friends and family.

(Hey, if your friends and family come with you, are you really getting away from it all?)

One of the things that Cathy and I like to do at the cabin is to take the kayaks around the lake shore to visit the other people on the lake; I joke that if we were in Florida we would be using golf carts instead of the kayaks to go “door-to-door”. On these daily trips, we love to collect fishing bobbers and fishing lures that we find along the shore. When we get back to the cabin, we display them on a shelf in a large jar as part of a larger collection of fishing items that we have picked up over the years.

How about you? Are you a collector? Do you like to take someone else’s discarded items and proudly display them in your home as though they were “special treasures”? I know that you do; I’ve been to some of your homes. I’ve seen the items that you have pulled out of the trash, dug up in your yard, picked up at a rummage sale that are now proudly displayed. 

Special treasures; it is said that one man’s junk is another man’s treasure.

Do you know that you are God’s “Special Treasure”? In the book “You Are Special”, Max Lucado tells the story of Punchinello, the wooden Wemmick who believes that he isn't good enough because of what others say about him.

You Are Special is a beautiful story that reminds us that we are precious to God just the way we are. It is through spending daily time with Him that we begin to see ourselves through His eyes. This is an important truth that children and parents need to know: God loves us even though we make mistakes and have flaws!

The Bible is filled with stories from cover (Genesis) to cover (Revelations) that show how much God loves us. Moses recorded in the book of Deuteronomy that God said; “For you are a holy people to the LORD your God, and the LORD has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples who are on the face of the earth."  (Deuteronomy 14:2)

God has sent Jesus Christ to pay for us as His Special Treasures. Jesus said; 16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. (John 3:16-17 NKJV)

In fact, Jesus was considered “rubbish” and was rejected by the religious leaders of His day. But God had other plans; Jesus was God’s Special Treasure:

“10 Let it be known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by Him this man stands here before you whole. 11 This is the ‘stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone.’12 Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:10-12 NKJV)

Do you know that you are God’s Special Treasure? check this out: http://www.billygraham.org/specialsections/graffiti/graffiti.asp

*NKJV = New King James Version Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.