I’m a treasure hunter. That’s something people don’t really know about me. But I love a good search, and I always have. It probably started when I was a little girl, and my Dad would create treasure hunts for my brother and I with clues that we would follow to finally dig up a buried or hidden treasure in the back yard. It was so much fun, and the joy of actually finding a treasure was so incredibly thrilling! I’m not sure which was more fun…the searching or the finding…or maybe it was a lot of both.

In college, I took a class where the teacher had us go on a field trip to a local hillside to dig up old fossils! After hours of digging on this hillside in the hot sun, I collected three prehistoric shark teeth that day and drove back to campus with that same thrill of excitement that I had felt as a child. I had found “real” treasure this time and it connected me to the past in such an exciting way. I was beyond elated!

This same excitement carries over into searching for “treasure” even within my own family tree. I love looking at the “clues” that my ancestors have passed on and left behind for me…unintentionally, yet there they are…sometimes in plain sight…ready for me to find. I have found birth, death, and marriage records, passenger manifests, old newspaper articles, photos, immigration records and more that have led me on searches through time to reveal hidden mysteries about those in my family tree that came before me. One for example, led me from translating old Swedish records to find out about an ancestor who came over to America and from there, led me find his final resting place in Napa, California. In the search, I found out that he loved my Great Grandma Selma’s sugar cookies…so when I found his final resting place I made sure to leave a few of those cookies on his unmarked gravesite. It took some searching to find that location too…but when I did, it felt like I had found something great. I like to think he looked down from Heaven in that moment and saw me do that. A year prior to that, I never even knew he had existed.

A few years back, we bought a metal detector to dig up old stuff around our cabin in the mountains. Although we mostly dig up old rusty nails and tin cans, every once in a while we find an old coin from the turn of the century, and once we even dug up an old animal trap placed there over a hundred years ago. When the metal detector beeps to let you know you’re about to find something, you know there could be something wonderful in the ground…and the excitement of finding hidden treasure keeps you searching for more.

Why am I writing about this, you ask? Good question! I was watching a show on tv this week about treasures being found in different parts of the world. There was one story where a couple was walking through the woods and accidentally uncovered several buckets of gold coins…possibly from a train robbery back in the 1800’s. I smiled at the thought of how exciting that must have been for them to uncover such a find of actual gold!

Whether it’s pretend treasure that was planted by my Dad, ancient fossil treasure, family mysteries revealed, or old coins…the hunt for something special has always drawn me in. I feel excited in the searching, but even more so when something is found! I guess that makes me a treasure hunter. I tell God often that He must have made me this way for a reason. 🙂 He is the one who made me good at searching things out. Then I think more specifically… at searching Him out. For the greatest treasure one can truly find is Jesus Himself…and when I take time to read His word and spend time worshipping Him…it feels as if I’ve found the greatest treasure of all. All other earthly treasure doesn’t even compare to the treasure of knowing Him. Matthew 13:44 says that God’s kingdom is like a “treasure hidden in a field for years and then accidentally found by a trespasser. The finder is ecstatic-what a find!” What a find!

Today at church, I was thinking about all of this…just telling Jesus in my heart that He is my treasure and that I’m searching Him out today…and then all of a sudden He interrupted my thoughts with a new thought. I knew right away it was from Him. He spoke to my heart that HE, too, is a treasure hunter. That caught me off guard! In a split second, I knew He was telling me that I am HIS treasure and He loves to search ME out! Tears clung to my eyelids with this sudden revelation that just as I pursue Him…He pursues me as well. I love how Deuteronomy 14:2 puts it. “God chose you out of all the people on earth as His cherished personal treasure.” I am HIS cherished personal treasure! AND…He made me like Him…to enjoy searching things out…and to experience the joy of finding hidden treasure!