“Guard the good treasure entrusted to you, with the help of the Holy Spirit living in us,” Timothy’s mentor exhorts. He is speaking of the good news of the gospel, but that’s not the only good treasure God has entrusted to us. What good treasure have you experienced in your life that you recognize as grace, a sheer gift from God?

I would start my list with life itself, with ruach, the breath of God breathing in and through me day by day. And Love, of course, God’s unconditional, never-failing Love which encompasses me with God’s Presence and upholds me in every circumstance, at every moment. I guess that includes all the ways I have come to recognize God’s hand working in my life: inspiring, guiding, comforting, healing, enlightening, transforming, humbling, encouraging, stretching, blessing, forgiving, reconciling, and calling. And then there’s surprising me with synchronicity, picking me up and dusting me off when I stumble and fall, nudging me into action, closing some doors while opening others, pulling me up short when I wander away, providing what I need when I am open and ready to receive it, enabling me to trust God in all things.

It seems to me that our psalmist in the midst of Lamentations today is testifying to what good treasure he has discovered in his life: “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning: great is your faithfulness. ‘The Lord is my portion,’ says my soul, ‘therefore I will hope in him.’ “ And I think Jesus was telling his apostles in today’s gospel that they already have the good treasure, they just need to open their eyes to see it. The same is true for us.

Take some time to identify and ponder the good treasure that has been entrusted to you. Because our perceptions are unique to each of us in all of God’s creation, your list will be somewhat different from mine. It may be that, to use Jesus’ metaphor from Mt.13:44, some of your good treasure is “hidden in a field.” If so, there’s no time like the present to start digging. The good treasure is there waiting for you to discover it and put it to good use.