In Matthew’s 13th chapter, Jesus compares the Kingdom of God to finding something so valuable that it comes to matter more than everything else. It is not that other things no longer matter, but rather that everything else is worthwhile in relation to God’s Kingdom.
In Jesus’ day, it was common to bury one’s valuables. More recently, many of the great stained glass windows of European cathedrals were preserved during World War II by burying them in the ground. Sometimes God’s presence and power breaks into our ordinary living in surprising and unexpected ways.
John Lennon put it like this: “life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.”
In contrast, others discover God by means of a long, deliberate and oftentimes painful quest. Worthy of consideration is the fact that it is an irritant that brings about the pearl within the oyster. There is a distrubance that triggers the oyster to create a protective shell around the irritant – and a pearl is formed: viola!
Whether God is encountered out of the blue or He is found after a long deliberate search, everything changes!
