The total exchange
As for me, I shall behold your face in righteousness;
When I awake I shall be satisfied, beholding your likeness. Psalm 17:15
Read Matthew 13:44—46
However often I come to these sayings of Jesus I am sure he does not cease to address me, and with a new word, and with a new force. This exchange is supposed to be a wise move on my part, a wise exchange. But it’s equally radical. I’m struck by the three-letter word, ‘all.’ To get that field, to get the treasure, someone exchanges ‘all.’ Nothing is quarantined. Nothing retained as their own. It’s total, total surrender. Total. To have that precious, precious, precious pearl the merchant sells ‘all.’ All! Nothing is kept for plan B. There is no alternative to this investment of all the merchant has. If this pearl is a fraud, there is nothing else the merchant wants anyway. I think if I found anything that tempted me away from the Lord and his kingdom — well, let me see, have I? Have I found anything else that could claim my ‘all’ and not let me down?
Such treasure, Lord. Such a pearl! Such value! Such beauty! I’m not making this up. I’m valuing as you value. I’m seeing this in you. I’m savouring it in your words, which live as I repeat them, as though they are new. They are worth listening to, dwelling on over and again. They give life. You write the things you hold dear into my life. As I know you I know life. I know your Father. Your Spirit breathes. And my story is renewed.