“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.” – Matthew 13:44

This week we have a guest staying in our basement apartment. She has an 8 month old boy, so the girls and I went on a walk to show them where our nearby park is located.

Somewhere along the way, while I was immersed in conversation with my new friend, Abigail chucked her little orange croc shoe out of the stroller. Of course, I didn’t notice this until we were at the park and she looked up, grinning at me with one bare foot.

We searched for it on our trip home but to no avail. I chalked it up as an inevitable loss of toddlerhood and moved on. Grace, however, did not give up so easily.

She was adamant that we find Abbey’s shoe. So out we went again, Grace on her bike speeding ahead of us craning her neck this way and that, searching in every bush and behind every tree.  “Mom, I see it!,” she said. Her speed picked up and I saw what she saw – a little blob of orange in the middle of the sidewalk further away.

“MOM! HER SHOE!!!” – you would have thought Grace had found a million dollars she was so excited. She snatched it up (not giving it back to Abbey yet because, “She’ll just lose it again.” Point taken.)

The best part was what Grace did upon returning home. She said, “I need to make a sign. It will say that Abigail lost her shoe, no one could find it, but GRACE found it!”

So…she did! Here’s the sign:

She taped it to a stick and actually stuck it in our front yard for a day or so, advertising to any passer-by her victory. I smiled at the pride of her finding.

It’s pretty fun when we find something we have lost or need desperately.

It’s also pretty cool when we find things we forgot we had – and recognize how valuable they are to us. I was recently going through some old photos and found a handwritten poem from my Grandfather who passed away a few years ago. My hands trembled as I read his words, written for our wedding rehearsal dinner nearly 12 years ago:

“I hope you have lots of children – all girls, as sweet as you.”

Tears filled my eyes as I realized his wish for me, a prayer offered up with prophetic weightiness that a Grandfather can carry, had come true.

As precious as these physical treasures are, none compares to those that are invisible yet of inestimable value. The love of God poured out on us through His Son. The love of others.

The treasures of God’s eternal kingdom aren’t redeemed by jewels or the green paper we exchange for stuff every day. While unseen, the treasures of knowing God and being a part of His kingdom are greater than any riches on this earth.

Will you search for this kingdom? If you have found this kingdom, are you willing to give up everything else in order to have it?

You are Christ’s treasure, the pearl He came to find. Let’s love Him because He first loved us, giving us access to a kingdom that can never be shaken.

“Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God,  rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him.“– John 13:3-5

How do you determine your self worth? To whom or what do you look for validation or security in your personhood?

Jesus offers a brilliant picture of healthy sense of self when He washed His disciples feet.

In John 13, We discover that:

1) Jesus knew that His hour had come to depart to the Father. He was assured that He had loved those who had been entrusted to Him until the end (He did what He had been called to do).

2) He knew that the Father had given all things into His hand (He knew the authority God had given Him).

3). He knew that He had come from God and was going back to God (He knew whose He was, where He’d come from, and where He was going).

From this place of knowledge of God, knowledge of Himself, and knowledge of His purpose on earth, He did an interesting thing.

He stooped. He served. He took a towel and washed His disciples feet.

His disciples hadn’t been wearing tennis shoes and walking on paved roads. No, they were likely wearing sandals and walking on extremely dirty roads.

Feet were filthy. He didn’t mind. He knew who He was and was confident in what was His.

And this freed Him to serve without restraint. Without fear of being rejected. Without fear of being looked down upon or criticized.

Through His example, we learn:

1) Healthy confidence stems from assurance that we have been created in the image of God – that while the world may say our noses need correction or our faces need lifting or our tummies need tucking, God looks at us and sees His work of art.

2) The God who was not ashamed to wash his friends dirty feet is not ashamed to wash our dirty hearts and call us His friends. And while Scripture says that even our mother and father may forsake us, God never will.

3) We can be full of peace and contentment in the portion God has given us knowing that He will fulfill His purpose for us, just as He fulfilled His purpose for Christ.

4) Truly confident people aren’t afraid to serve. Only the truly secure person can be truly humble and confident at the same time. They aren’t looking out for themselves because they know they are loved and valued and provided for by God.

While this world places value on beauty, wealth, fame, popularity, success, God places value on all human beings regardless of their status, rank, or job title.

The God who created us, called us, loves us with an everlasting love, washes and redeems us from our sins, and empowers us with purpose to live a life of honor and good work unto Him says, “you are made in my image – and I don’t make mistakes!”

So receive His love, take a towel, and stoop lower to see with new eyes for humanity.

When you do, you will be following in the footsteps of the King of Kings.

“The only answer in these modern times, as in all other times, is the blood of Christ. When our conscience rises up and condemns us, where will we turn? We turn to Christ. We turn to the suffering and death of Christ—the blood of Christ. This is the only cleansing agent in the universe that can give the conscience relief in life and peace in death.” 
― John Piper

There is no more beautiful and powerful story in the entire world than that of Almighty God choosing to humble Himself, come to the earth in the form of a man – a man who worked with hands, loved children, enjoyed real friendships, experienced the sting of betrayal by one who was in His inner circle, and then gave Himself up to suffer, bleed, and die for the sins of the people in this world.

This is one story, one message, one life worth meditating on for….forever.

My daughters and I have been reading Ann Voskamp’s devotional during this Lent season.  From Genesis onward, the story of God’s love and redemption of mankind is woven throughout Scripture, culminating here at the Cross of Christ.

Taking the time to pause and consider what Christ has endured for us has filled our hearts with thanksgiving and awe. Instead of rushing through the readings and saying a quick prayer, we have just been going slowly through this devotional.

Instead of being impatient with the girls when they interrupt me to ask questions while I read, I have been letting them interrupt as much as they want (saying “Excuse me, Mom?” is my only prerequisite 😉 It ended up taking us one solid hour to get through our two page devotional yesterday 🙂

It was AWESOME. And I really mean that. They wanted to know things like, “Momma, why would Judas do that?!” “Did the soldiers know who they were killing?!” “Did God the Father raise Jesus from the dead or did Jesus raise Himself? How would He do that?”

A friend of mine told me that studies have shown that out of all children,  4 year old girls have the most questions. I have a 3 and 5 year old girl, so you do the math. My main role right now is “Question Answerer.”

They have heard the story of the Cross hundreds of times (probably because it is always Chesed’s choice to read from our Storytime Bible at night). But this time I read them straight from Matthew’s account, which includes awesome facts like the curtain of the temple tearing in two from top to bottom, an earthquake and rocks splitting open, and (my personal favorite) tombs bursting open and many bodies of saints who had been dead were raised, appearing to many in the holy city after his resurrection.

We stopped at each point and thought and talked about it all and they found it all quite fascinating. But one thing really troubled them: When I read them that Christ cried out on the cross “My God, My God, Why have you forsaken me?”

Why, Grace wanted to know, would God the Father turn away from Jesus at His moment of greatest suffering?

I explained that at that moment Christ was taking upon Himself the sins of mankind – our sins – He became sin: “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21).

It was for our sake that Christ endured rejection, persecution, torture, death, becoming sin (when He himself lived a perfect and blameless life) and worst – abandonment from His Father.

For our sake. People in this world may all define love in different ways. But there has never been love like this – ever.  His deep, enduring passion was to do His Father’s will and reconcile mankind to His Father.

He endured all of this that we may have a relationship with God. That we would be unbound from the shackles of sin and death, reborn as new creations in Christ Jesus. That we would confess our sins, receive His great grace, forsake the shame of our past, and step into the joy of His love – never to be forsaken or abandoned.

This is the beautiful message of the Passion of Christ – worth meditating on this Easter season and all year long.

Phot Credit: Claudio