RICHES & TREASURES

My God-daughter, "Betty," and grandchildren, "Viv" and "James," visited with us last week. We took advantage of the time they were with us to involve ourselves in a wealth of fun and exciting activities.

The Blue Man production. Disney World. A local wildlife preserve. A fossil museum.

I love to give people personal possessions, rather than store-bought ‘stuff,’ and while they were here, I passed on one of my father’s colorful landscape paintings to Betty, and gave James a fossilized whale vertebrae, as he is ‘taken up’ with dinosaurs, fossils, and such things.

However, what I gave Viv, and its specific connection to a certain scripture, and the Bible in general, only occurred to me in the past hour.

For you see, I presented my granddaughter with two items.

A rock from Mount Sinai which a friend brought back from the holy land, and a polished amethyst gemstone. And as I have previously inferred, these particular rocks characterize the following scripture well; (and vice versa).

“I will give you riches in darkness, and treasures in secret places.” (Isaiah 45:3)

The stone from Mt. Sinai is a geode. It has been purposely broken into two parts which fit perfectly together. The outside of the orange-sized rock is smooth and non-descript. The inside is nothing short of stunning. For the inside of each half is absolutely covered with beautiful white crystals.

The lovely purple amethyst was dug from the ground, and polished by the hand of man.

Pt. 2

In alluding to the geode, and Mt. Sinai, the place of its origin, you may recall that Moses met God there, and the Lord hid him in a cleft of the rock; since he could not look into the Almighty’s face for fear of certain death. Moses went up on a mountain to meet the Lord of Hosts, and to receive the Ten Commandments. And though this humble man only saw God’s ‘hinder parts,’ when he returned from his mountain experience, his face shone like the sun.

Speaking of the amethyst gemstone, which was dug from the earth, some man labored to bring it up from its hiding place; in whence it had lain unobserved, and dormant for a million years.

And as I have implied, I think a correlation exists between the two stones, and the preceding scripture.

As believers, we sometimes climb the proverbial mountains, and enjoy the benefits and blessings of God. Where the spiritual air is clean, and “all is right with the world.” Not a care. Not a complaint. Our needs met. Our children healthy and happy and whole.

However, at other times, we find ourselves trudging through a proverbial valley; where all things come hard, and where light is quickly exchanged for darkness. It seems our needs go lacking, and only damage, dearth and death surrounds us.

Psalm 23 alludes to the phases of life which believers may experience during the course of our time on this planet.

“Thou preparest a table before me.”

Vs.

“Yeah though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death.

Pt. 3

Rev. David Jeremiah once posed the question.

“Who would want to live a vanilla-flavored life anyway?”

To which, no doubt, some of us might respond,

“Well, I would!”

And yet our Lord promised we would experience tribulation, and none of us, saint or sinner, will escape it; (and some more than others).

I love the song by the group, “MercyMe,” titled,

“Even If.”

They say sometimes you win some
Sometimes you lose some
And right now, right now I'm losing bad
I've stood on this stage night after night
Reminding the broken it'll be alright
But right now, oh right now I just can't

It's easy to sing
When there's nothing to bring me down
But what will I say
When I'm held to the flame
Like I am right now

I know You're able and I know You can
Save through the fire with Your mighty hand
But even if You don't
My hope is You alone

They say it only takes a little faith
To move a mountain
Well good thing
A little faith is all I have, right now
But God, when You choose
To leave mountains unmovable
Oh give me the strength to be able to sing
It is well with my soul

I know You're able and I know You can
Save through the fire with Your mighty hand
But even if You don't
My hope is You alone
I know the sorrow, and I know the hurt
Would all go away if You'd just say the word
But even if You don't
My hope is You alone

You've been faithful, You've been good
All of my days
Jesus, I will cling to You
Come what may
‘Cause I know You're able
I know You can




I know you're able and I know you can
Save through the fire with your mighty hand
But even if you don't
My hope is You alone
I know the sorrow, I know the hurt
Would all go away if You'd just say the wor
But even if you don't
My hope is you alone.

It is well with my soul
It is well, it is well with my soul

Songwriters: BART MARSHALL MILLARD, BENJAMIN GLOVER, CRYSTAL LEWIS, DAVID ARTHUR GARCIA, TIM TIMMONS

Afterward

There is a poignant passage of scripture which informs believers that,

“My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:8-9)

And while we can’t predict what sort of circumstances we are liable to experience in the future, I think it is encouraging to know that our Lord knows all about it, and as the “I AM” of scripture has been there before us.

It is comforting to know understand that God will not allow us to endure more than we are capable of enduring, as scripture assures us.

I know You're able and I know You can
Save through the fire with Your mighty hand
But even if You don't
My hope is You alone
I know the sorrow, I know the hurt
Would all go away if You'd just say the word
But even if You don't
My hope is You alone

By William McDonald, PhD. Excerpt from "(Mc)Donald's Daily Diary" Vol. 76. Copyright pending

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