Proverbs 3:15 “she is more precious than jewels, and nothing you desire can compare with her”

 

I volunteered to help at a Scripture Union camp for 13-14-year-old children who were from difficult backgrounds. I went down a couple of days early to the seaside camp as we were first to use the area after the winter and there was a lot of remedial work to do. The children arrived on four double-decker busses, they streamed out of the buses, screaming and shouting, and running amuck everywhere and getting immediately into all kinds of mischief. The last child went to sleep that night around 4.30 am and we had breakfast at 6 am. I genuinely was not sure that I could make it through a week of this.

One of the things we had to do was to take a group of the boys out to the country camping for one night.  My turn came and we went to the remote campsite that day. The boys were unbelievable. As we were setting up camp and making a fire, they went up the hills around us and threw stones and sticks at us and were cursing and screaming. However, they were city kids and when it started to get dark they were really not used to there being no street lights so they made their way to the campfire a little sheepishly. I was already thinking about what nonsense they would get up to that night, pulling down our tent and running around in the dark. So round the fire, I told them a story.

 

Nearby was a ruined farmhouse and I told them it had been burned down in a fire and the farmer who lived there had lost his face in the fire and still roamed around the glens and hills, lost, and always wandering. I said that sometimes he would come into people’s tents and put what was left of his face next to theirs to try and imagine what it was like to have a face again, but that he never ever harmed anyone. I said that if they woke up and he was there, they should just lie very still.

 

They asked me if I was making this up, but I kept a straight face. Eventually, they were all in the one tent together, and I’m sure I heard a couple of sniffles(they were supposed to be in two tents but they were really keen to stay together).

Once they were in the tent I shouted in that we had seen the farmer and were going for the police and that they should all stay in the tent. We got great sleep that night and I don’t think any of the boys even came out of their tent for a pee.

I was on the busses a few days later with all these amazing young boys as they set off home, over 70 of the 100 boys had committed their lives to Jesus in that camp. As we drove out of the camp the other volunteers lined the road to wave them off. Every one of the boys on the bus I was on, broke down and cried as they left the camp, to be honest, I was crying too.

 

I’m not recommending that we ever tell stories like this – it was me, at the moment as a young Christian – but somehow in the chaos and strife we connected with the boys, we all shared memories that would last forever and they received a future from God that would last forever.

 

 

KNOWLEDGE

This scripture reminds me of Matt 13:45-46 – “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, 46 who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it”.

Firstly we need to be searching for the right thing, in the right area with the right approach and attitude. We can spend years of our lives searching for the wrong thing, or in the wrong places, or even with the wrong attitude – or any combination of these. Years go by, we have moments of brief happiness, but never lasting satisfaction.

There is a search that demands everything for a prize that costs nothing. There is tension in the algorithm. We use all our heart and strength to seek wisdom, in the shape of encounters with God, and the more we use it, the deeper we go, the more we have. 

There is no adventure on the face of this earth that can compare to the daily journey of seeking after God. We seek and seek some more, and then we seek some more.  The more we find the more we desire to seek. The first step sits with us, and once we start we daren’t stop. God whispers each moment, “come closer”.

 

 

UNDERSTANDING

Let’s pick one word from this verse to look closer at and see if that can help us gain a deeper insight into how God would love us to live?

The word for “precious” in Hebrew is pronounced y’qippa’on” and appears 36 times in the ESV Old Testament, it’s translated as, rare; costly; precious; splendour; glory; ladies of honour; cool spirit; outweighs; and cold. This word is used to introduce the potential value, beauty and durability in our character.

 

 

WISDOM: when did you last consider the desires of your heart and write them down?

 

 

STRENGTHS THOUGHT: Positivity – you see and bring a “possibility” point of view to everything you are involved in. Remember to honour and give space for others’ feelings.

 

 

Allan’s Unauthorised Version – [she is prized and esteemed, outweighing any gem you can imagine. Nothing that you take pleasure in or delight in could deserve to be thought equal or even resemble her [wisdom].]

 

 

PRAYER: Father, thank you for today. Help me today to catch a fresh revelation of you, your ways and your words and fall deeply in love with you more and more. Thank you.

 

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