Nurturing the Life Within #2

I was reading The Treasure Principle by Randy Alcorn today and I realized Jesus made the same point I was struggling to make yesterday about perspective and priority. He made it in a single verse. "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)

Here's what Alcorn writes about the parable:

From the moment of his discovery, the traveler’s life changes. The treasure captures his imagination, becomes the stuff of his dreams. It’s his reference point. His new center of gravity. The traveler takes every new step with this treasure in mind. He experiences a radical paradigm shift....

The traveler made short-term sacrifices to obtain a long-term reward. “It cost him everything he owned,” you might lament. Yes, but it gained him everything that mattered.

If we miss the phrase “in his joy” we miss everything. The man wasn’t exchanging lesser treasures for greater treasures out of dutiful drudgery but out of joyful exhilaration. He would have been a fool not to do exactly what he did.

The man in the parable and the pregnant woman go "all in" so to speak. They begin to organize their lives around achieving a new goal. This is the attitude that you and I can have when we realize that Christ's life within us is as important to secure as treasure in field of otherwise worthless dirt and as important to nurture as an unborn baby. With joy we can begin to take steps that will make that treasure our own and which will cause that new life to thrive.