A Handful of Pungent Treasure

I was thinking about how so many people are desperately trying to please God by jumping through all sorts of flaming religious hoops, if you think about it, our efforts to earn God’s favor by doing all these religious or “good things” could be perfectly equated to the story of the little boy and the handful of Treasure;

This little chubby face two year old was out in the back yard one day with his Daddy, as the father worked on the yard the little toddler was wandering about exploring his vast domain, when all the sudden he came across a very interesting formation, so as any little boy would do he picked it up, the texture was fascinating a little hard on the outside but still soft on the inside, and what was even more amazing was the wonderful pungent aroma that was released when he broke through the crusty outer surface, this was really a find. He had smelled something similar before, but not quite the same, well needless to say, after taking a small bite, as any sensible two year old would do, he realized this was not a good food source, but still felt he had to show this incredible find to his Daddy as soon as possible! Walking over to his father filled with joy and pride over the great discovery, he reached up his pudgy hand, offering the aromatic treasure over to his proud father and then in perfect innocence, the chubby face little guy said, “Mell Dits Daddy” then looked on anticipating the mutual appreciation.

His father, after receiving the semi hardened log of dog poop smiled and kissed his Boy on the forehead and then proceeded to bury this handful of laughter, this joyful eternal memory in the backyard flowerbed,… (for safe keeping), that’s what he told his little explorer, his little delight.

As I thought about this, I wondered how often we come before God, our Loving Father, and with good intentions, bring all kinds of offerings of… for the lack of a more fitting term,… piles of Poop?! The Father just smiles, kisses us on the forehead, and sets the gift aside. Our wonderful God is always anticipating the day we realize that all the stuff we think we need to do to appease him, is really just piles of proverbial Poop! All the little laws and rituals, are not even as valuable as that pile of dog doo, at least the dog doo was good for fertilizer!

Gregory J.