Treasure

Tucked away in Ukraine, behind a tall fence that hid a pink house, sat a little girl. God told us that she was a treasure and that we were to go get her because the rewards of that treasure were to be ours. We had grand ideas about what this treasure would be like; however, I must confess that when we finally met out treasure she often didn't look, act, or smell like a treasure and sometimes I had trouble recognizing her as one. There were days when I said "Did we hear you wrong, God? Are you SURE this is her?" He continued to assure us that we had heard right, and so in obedience we brought her home. We hoped that we would be able to see what God saw after we got her home but to be honest it only got worse. Day after day we struggled to find this treasure. It was hard, but little by little we began to see glimpses of it. Now when we see her we are amazed by how blessed we are. We are truly reaping the rewards of our treasure from God. Does that mean it is always wonderful and always easy? Absolutely not! The difference is that God has allowed us to see her as He sees her and when that happens the "flaws" in the treasure are more difficult to see than they were at first. I remember when we came home I called my friend Ellen and told her "Don't EVER let me do this again!". She assured me that 1) she would never promise me that (I love you for that, Ellen!) and 2) the day would come that I would say I'd do it all over again just to have her. She was so right. We would do it a million more times for her!