I am the daughter of a carpenter. When I was a kid, I loved hanging out with my Dad. I’d go to job sights with Him every chance I got.  I would scour the floors for mystery objects like nails, bolts, washers, and pipe fittings.  To this day I love the smell of sawdust.  It’s the smell of adventure!

It was an absolute thrill to go to the dump with my dad.  His truck always smelled like dirt, but when we pulled into the dump, my mind was so fixated on treasure, that I no longer smelled anything.  What wonderful thing could I bring home?

When my husband and I were newly married, we couldn’t afford to buy items for our household, so I would set out rummaging things, looking on roadsides for objects I needed to complete my nest.  I still have a large wooden spool that I painted and made into an end table.  It’s a symbol of possible resourcefulness in my garage, not to mention, a reminder of where we came from.

When you’re very poor, or cheap, you discover such a thing as “found art”.  It’s a cool vibe kind of thing for what other people call “junk”.

My new obsession is a little consignment store I found.  I buy dresses and handbags for under $20.00 and I must say I feel ever so smart for the prizes I have discovered.

Oh, the thrill of the hunt!  In all of these, each and every item I’ve ever found has a story.  A past.  Who used it first?  Where has it been?  It’s cool to think I could salvage something that might otherwise not be put to use.

Jesus was into the recovery of things that might otherwise we lost forever.  In Matthew 13 Jesus was telling stories all day about lost treasure, found pearls, a treasure in a field, yeast rising in bread dough, caught fish, and then as he continues, his story turns to the parable of the farmer who planted seeds in a field. Most of us are familiar with the story, but I’ve always wondered why this story is told in succession with the treasure talk:

“The farmhands came to the farmer and said, ‘Master, that was clean seed you planted, wasn’t it? Where did these thistles come from?’

“He answered, ‘Some enemy did this.’

“The farmhands asked, ‘Should we weed out the thistles?’

“He said, ‘No, if you weed the thistles, you’ll pull up the wheat, too. Let them grow together until harvest time. Then I’ll instruct the harvesters to pull up the thistles and tie them in bundles for the fire, then gather the wheat and put it in the barn.’”

Jesus dismissed the congregation and went into the house.

(I love that Jesus didn’t merely invite His disciples in to hear and understand the mysteries of the Kingdom of God, but all of us who would read this story are included.  We are privileged to enter into the in-crowd.)

His disciples came in and said, “Explain to us that story of the thistles in the field.”

So he explained….

“The picture of thistles pulled up and burned is a scene from the final act. The Son of Man will send his angels, weed out the thistles from his kingdom, pitch them in the trash, and be done with them. They are going to complain to high heaven, but nobody is going to listen. At the same time, ripe, holy lives will mature and adorn the kingdom of their Father.

“Are you listening to this? Really listening?

“God’s kingdom is like a treasure hidden in a field for years and then accidentally found by a trespasser. The finder is ecstatic—what a find!—and proceeds to sell everything he owns to raise money and buy that field.

In this passage, Jesus used the word “field” not merely for the church, but for the world. I admit, sometimes we get weary of the thistles in the field, don’t we?  (People who seem to aggravate us, impede development, and generally get in the way.)  I see the entire reach of our lives  as the large field Jesus described.  Like the wheat in this story, we have genuinely good people, in our lives (in our field).  They are those friends and loved ones who are really putting forth effort to become better, who are truly desiring more in life, and  it’s frustrating when we watch that growth take place in the midst of the thistles.  But if we want people to be successful, it’s our job to love them all.  We tend them all. We touch and nurture them all. And we wait. Wheat and thistles together. It’s not our job to weed any of them out.  (Therefore we must refrain from judging those in the field – no matter where we encounter them.)   He is saying, “treasure the wheat, and don’t mind the thistles.” There will come a harvest.

Again this week I was reminded that our job as Christians is to be people of restoration.  Reconciliation.  Renewal.  We follow His example.  There is hope in that. We all enter this process of Christianity with our own history.  Lessons in how we’ve been used before, things we’ve seen and done.  But our God is the great lover of our souls.  He brings value to that which might have been lost forever.  Because of His investment in us, we are salvageable.  He is patient and He has reclaimed us.

So with that hope, we keep looking for the treasure in the people around us, we search for the salvageable, we keep feeding and nurturing, we continue loving, and let God handle the rest.

And then we see!  We understand that it is we who are blessed, because we get to be the ones who unearth the beauty! Then we discover, what the Lord says in Isaiah 45:3,
And I will give you treasures hidden in the darkness—secret riches.
I will do this so you may know that I am the Lord,
the God of Israel, the one who calls you by name.

To know that God calls us by name, and we can trust Him to be faithful to us, means that our efforts are never wasted.  So keep investing in the wheat, and be patient with the thistles.  Treasure will surely come.