“The reason you are still single is because you drive your truck and not a sports car.” The words stung in my ears, leaving me completely speechless. How do you respond to such an accusation? Especially coming from a brother and sister in Christ, a well-respected family in the community in which I live. Two years later the words still echo in the back of my mind.
I feel very sorry for that couple. The world around us says that in order to be happy we always need more. We need new. We need big. And if we lack any of that, we’re worthless, something to be looked down upon and pitied. Or outright ignored. As followers of Jesus Christ, we are called to remember that there is much more to this life than the stuff we can acquire along the way. God has paved the streets of heaven with gold; He has no need for more of such a worthless commodity. The treasure He collects, the thing most precious to Him, is people.
When I was very young, my mom bought me a bookmark entitled “All that glitters is not gold.” I can to this day remember the smell of the cardboard, the feel and shape of its silhouette. A rainbow arching down onto a leprechaun’s treasure, slightly glittered, with a yarn tassel attached to the top. A lifetime later, the words still echo in the back of my mind.
Do you see that man over there? That woman standing at the bus stop? The child holding her teddy bear? Look closely. They are not the clothes they wear. They are not the car they drive. They are not the house they live in. What they own, and what they lack, do not define their true worth. They are people, human beings, created in the image of the Living God.
They are the treasure of Heaven, more precious than even the finest gold. God Himself gave His very life in order to save them. To save you. To save me.