Psalms 119:127 KJV
Therefore I love
thy commandments above gold; yea, above fine gold.
Our recent family vacation was
spent in Winthrop , WA
and the Methow Valley ,
the heart of Washington
gold country. Even now hobbyists and more serious prospectors are bringing gold
out of "them thar hills!"
Thanks to Bohannan, my oldest
son, we got a small taste of gold prospecting while we were there. Placer gold
is that which is scattered down a river stream by the current of the water.
It's recovered either by panning or dredging the gold river's bottom and
running it through a sluice to sift out the gold from other sediment.
Here's the applicable part for
us; since the gold is scattered down the river through the current it stands to
reason that the farther you get from the source, the smaller will be the pieces
of gold. There are huge amounts of gold all the way down to the ocean, but it's
so fine it is almost impossible to sift out. If you want the bigger pieces, you
have to go up river, high into the mountains where the nuggets that are too
heavy to be carried away in the current are deposited.
Of course, the higher in the
mountains a person is, the greater are the hardships of being there.
The same is true in the spiritual
life. The greatest treasures of Christianity can only be gleaned by being very
close to the Lord. The problem is, it's a challenge to get there and once there
you'll find that the world will bring hardships upon you.
Paul said any sufferings he
endured in those higher elevations of the spiritual life could not be compared
to the glory which would be revealed in him in heaven.
The gold that's available from a
close walk with God is obvious worth the hardships of that spiritual life.
Marvin
McKenzie
In the
fields
