I have a question for you: What do you think of when you hear the word treasure?
Do you picture something like this?
Maybe you thought of lots of money or precious jewels, or of pirate stories where they are digging for hidden gold?
What do you think is the most precious treasure to God?
Listen to these words from the ‘Jesus Storybook Bible’; what does it say about treasure?
The Bible isn’t a book of rules or a book of heroes. The Bible is most of all a story. It’s an adventure story about a young hero who comes from a far country to win back his lost treasure… the story of how God loves his children and comes to rescue them.
The Bible shows us that people are the most precious treasure to God, and it’s not because of anything we do, but just because we are created by Him, to be loved by Him.
When I first started working with young children in Romania, I was working at a preschool in a small town. One of the young teachers was from a nearby Roma gypsy village where there was no preschool. She felt God saying He wanted us to start a preschool there too. So, we did!
We were praying about a name for the preschool and we read this verse:
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 One who calls you by name. (Isaiah 45:3)
This village felt like a dark place, the Roma people’s homes had no electricity or running water. In many ways they were forgotten by most people. But God was showing us that these children were His hidden treasures.
We called the preschool ‘Comori micute’ in Romanian which means ‘Little treasures.’ And we wrote a song for the children about being God’s treasures. Click on the link to watch a video clip of the preschool children
I have another question: When you look at these photos, what words would you use to describe these Roma children?
They may not look important or rich, but they are precious to God, just as every person is.
There are no proper roads or pavement in their villages so whenever it rains it becomes very muddy. Think about how their mums wash their clothes without electricity? They need to collect water from a well in a bucket, heat the water on a fire and wash everything by hand. It’s no wonder children sometimes come to school with dirty clothes!
Many of us have read this parable in Matthew 13:44:
The Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure that a man discovered hidden in a field. In his excitement, he hid it again and sold everything he owned to get enough money to buy the field.
In this parable Jesus talks about hidden treasure to remind us that finding God is like finding the most important thing in life.
But as the Jesus Storybook Bible says, God has a treasure, too, of course. A treasure that was lost, long, long ago. What was God’s treasure, his most important thing, the thing he loved best in all the world? God’s treasure was his children. It was why Jesus had come into the world. To find God’s treasure.
Family Activity: Buried Treasure
Depending on what you have available, take a bowl of sand, mud (!) or even snow, and hide some items to be your buried treasure. (maybe little beads or coins)
Let each person take a turn to ‘go digging for treasure’. Remind yourselves that each of you are unique treasures.
You could try closing eyes and searching by feel with your fingers or use a spoon to dig around.
To Think about:
Sometimes we can feel stuck in the dark or dirt, but God’s heart keeps pursuing us as he designed us for relationship. He doesn’t just look at the outside dirt. He sees the treasure inside each person He created.
We have value regardless of who we are, what we do, or the struggles we have. As we discover more deeply the way God treasures us, then we are more able to ‘see’ the treasure in others. We won’t be competing to prove our worth, but we’ll be freer to love them even if the treasure in them is a little hidden.
To end, let’s thank God together that each of us is a treasure to Him. Ask Him to help you understand this more for yourself and for others.
Chris Low
Hi, I’m Christine (Chris) Low from England, married to Andrew from Canada. We serve with YWAM Restore in Romania. I grew up in a family of teachers, and as the eldest of 6 cousins, could often be found organising them all to play ‘schools!’ It seemed only natural to train as a teacher, but after a couple of years teaching primary school in London, I found myself questioning things. I took time out, asking the Lord to confirm His call, and He started to highlight Scriptures about the importance of passing on truth to the next generation.
32 years ago, I had the opportunity to take a training course alongside a preschool in YWAM Scotland and was impressed again with the importance of modelling and passing on Biblical values and truths during a child’s foundational years.
After that, I joined the preschool team, did a DTS, and have been involved with preschool ministry for most of the time since then.
This has taken me to Romania, back to Scotland where I married Andrew, then together we have served in Mozambique, Spain, and now with YWAM Romania again.
We have 4 children and 6 grandchildren. Here we are with our 2 youngest