Their story, I imagined, could have been my story. As it was reported in USA Today, September 3, 2022 an unidentified couple from North Yorkshire, England was updating their kitchen when they found a salt-glazed cup buried underneath the concrete and floorboards. The soda-can-sized cup contained around 260 coins that in today's money holds a spending power of about $115,100. Auctioneers expect the coins to sell for at least $290,000 next month! Suffice it to say, I will not be making a bid.
With the sobering slap of a wet squirrel to the forehead, God recently reminded me of His wisdom shared in Ecclesiastes 5:10-12, “Whoever loves money never has enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with their income. This too is meaningless. As goods increase, so do those who consume them. And what benefit are they to the owners except to feast their eyes on them? The sleep of a laborer is sweet, whether they eat little or much, but as for the rich, their abundance permits them no sleep.”
Now, I knew any source of financial security is ultimately no real security at all. Yet I carried around a substantial collection of nearly 120 coins for over 45 years anticipating the day I would cash in on them as a nest egg during leaner times: a treasure chest of Morgan silver dollars, liberty dollars, mercury dimes, buffalo nickels, Eisenhower dollars, and proof sets my aunt had purchased for me when I was a child from her workplace at a bank in Whitesburg, KY.
Recently I ‘broke’ open this 45 year burden of my piggy bank to find what I had come to consider a treasure was in fact worth … around $120. Granted, my coins were not Spanish gold, but they did contain a good amount of silver … and years of anticipation for something more. God has chosen to show His great love for me in a much more humbling way. And though I am not financially banked? I am relationally rich. He has driven well into my soul the realities:
“And the words of the Lord are flawless, like silver purified in a crucible, like gold refined seven times.” Psalm 12:6
“The law from your mouth is more precious to me than thousands of pieces of silver and gold.” Psalm 119:72
“Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” Colossians 2:2-3
“…for wisdom is more precious than rubies, and nothing you desire can compare with her.” Proverbs 8:11
My cup is full, my soul is well cared for, and my song is certain:
Lord, You are more precious than silver. Lord, You are more costly than gold. Lord, You are more beautiful than diamonds, and Nothing I desire compares with You.