Mining for Gold

“Yea, if thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding; If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures; Then shalt thou understand the fear of the L ord , and find the knowledge of God.”
– Proverbs 2:3-5

As a young man, I worked in a pear orchard for a large corporation. It was my last year of high school and I was enjoying life—how could it get any better? It was not long before the answer to that question came! A foreman began telling me about his experience as a gold miner, and I decided to get in on the action. The next day, I went down to the hardware store to buy the tools I would need: a fourteen-inch gold pan, a miner's pick, and a straw hat. While I was a little short on experience, I surely was not short on enthusiasm.

Out in the hills, I found a stream that had a reputation for having fine particles of gold settled at its bottom. I put on my straw hat and began to work the residues in my gold pan. The gentleman in the orchard had told me that if I put my pan in a fire, it would turn blue and make the gold easier to see. I did that, and before long I began seeing glittering bits in my pan. As my excitement ran high, I gathered up the flecks and brought them back to town—only to find that my experience had yielded fool's gold! At that point I was long on experience and short on enthusiasm, and I abandoned my quest for gold.

After just one day of seeking gold, I gave up. Not surprisingly, I walked away with nothing. Our focus verse speaks of seeking knowledge and understanding as one who seeks treasure—which means we will need more effort than just one day of seeking! Just as gold miners must be diligent and able to distinguish between worthless rocks and real gold, Christians must also be diligent in seeking the Lord, and careful not to be fooled by false teachings. False teachings and empty religion are easy to find, but we cannot settle for anything less than the pure Gospel.

A pan, a pick, and a straw hat will not work for seeking the Lord. Rather, we learn God's truths through prayer, His Word, and obedient hearts. As we seek the Lord diligently with those tools, we will surely find the treasure of the Gospel. Our search will take more than one day, but we must not give up! For when we find His treasure, it will be more valuable than fine gold, and more precious than rubies (Proverbs 3:14-15).