Mt 13:44-46 The Kingdom of God and Gum

Mt  13:44-46  The Kingdom of God and Gum

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Jesus said to his disciples:  “The Kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field, which a person finds and hides again.”

Recently, I went to see a movie with a beautiful family.  They have three girls and one little boy.  I can’t remember at this moment what movie we went to see, but that’s not the point of this meditation.  During the movie, the youngest child poked me repeatedly.  I thought he was just bothering me, but when I finally looked at him, I saw that he was offering me a piece of bubble gum.  “For me?” I inquired.  The child simply nodded his little head.  “Aw…thank you so much!”

While I watched the movie, I unwrapped the gum as quietly as possible and quickly put it in my mouth.  It didn’t take me long to realize that something was wrong with the gum; it didn’t taste right.  I chewed and chewed but there was no flavor.  In fact, it kind of tasted nasty.  It kind of tasted like it had been tasted before!  I looked over at my little friend and asked him, “Where did you get this gum?”  At that, he put his hand over his mouth and began to giggle; a giggle that reminded me of the JOKER!

I couldn’t believe it!  I was about to tell this child, “Don’t you know I can send you to hell?!!”  I didn’t.  I controlled myself.

Well, I immediately took the gum out of mouth and looked for the wrapper.  I have to admit I didn’t know where it was.  I kind of threw it somewhere in the movie theater.  With no options left, I decided to stick the gum on the front of my chair. 

I know…I know…Sorry, but I did it anyways.  I promised myself I would remove it as soon as the movie was over, I forgot.  Thank God! 

As we were saying our goodbyes and I was heading over to my car, I noticed that I couldn’t find my car keys.  I must have dropped them somewhere, but where?  I headed straight back to the theater and asked if anyone had found a set of keys.  Negative.  I went back inside the theater and to where I had sat.  But with the lights on and everyone gone, I couldn’t exactly remember where I had sat.  I went to one row, checked it, and found nothing. 

That’s when I remembered the bubble gum. 

I began to search for the bubble gum rather than for my keys.  Once I found it, I searched below my seat and found my keys.

If there is anything “unique” about my meditations; if the Lord has blessed me in a special way, then it is in taking the day to day realities of life and applying them to the Gospel truth. 

So often in my life I have considered certain “things” as useless, only to come back to them and find some hidden truth in them.  Take for example, faith.  As a child I considered faith as being meaningless, useless, and impractical only to come back to it later in life and appreciate it beyond belief!   Today, I consider my faith in God (and not in myself) as a treasure that is well worth selling everything for in order to own it.  What I once thought was tasteless, boring and unprofitable; today, I consider it to be a pearl of great price; the key to unlocking so many mysteries in my life.