I particularly am one of those people in love with books. I have a full bookcase and sometimes I haven’t read all the works and titles, but I keep them all neatly organized.
Because of that, this week a friend lent me a book called “The Gutenberg Bible Enigma” (Maurício Zágari), which tells that one day a missionary took one of the 48 copies of the Gutenberg Bible (the first printed book) to a Brazilian Church and the book was stolen.
The whole story revolves around this fact, because that Bible was extremely valuable and could not be lost in that way. That book was the treasure of that missionary, that church, and it could not be lost.
The Hidden Treasure
The story in this book reminded me of the treasure hidden in the field:
“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure, buried in a field, that a man found and reburied. Then in his joy he goes and sells everything he has and buys that field.”
Matthew 13:44
I’m still reading the book, so I’m imagining the ending: have they found the Bible? Who was to blame? Was there really a culprit? If they found it, imagine how happy they were.
This led me to think about how we treat so many things as the great treasure of our lives: material possessions, fleeting goals, certain relationships, among others. But the Bible tells us of a hidden treasure. To the man who found it, the treasure became the most precious thing he had, to the point of selling everything he had to buy the land where the treasure was hidden.
So must be our search for what is eternal. It needs to be incessant and with the understanding that it doesn’t matter what we have on this earth, because nothing will be better than what we will have in eternity, and above all, Who we will be with.
May our quest for the Kingdom of Heaven be like that of the protagonist in my book looking for the Gutenberg Bible. May we keep it in our lives and hearts as the man who found the buried treasure kept it, considering what is most precious to us.
God bless,
Ana.
