My field is a treasure

MATTHEW 13: 44-46

The field I irrigate at the monastery has become a treasure to me. I truly enjoy being out there, making the field green as I flood one area and another. When I first began to work this field some years ago, I found it to be tiresome, difficult and unpleasant. No one else cared to irrigate this field. It is full of rocks and mounds. Many places have little soil in which to grow grass for the animals to graze upon. I was simply given the field as my "work" each day.

I could not for the life of me figure out how to get water to go from one place to another through all the intricate ditches, including the many I dug myself. With much patience and effort, I began to figure it out. I began to see the field turn green in more places. Grass could grow where before there was nothing.

This field that no one wanted had become my treasure. It all depended on how I looked at it. Still no one else wants to irrigate this field. They do not see what I see. The field as treasure was always there waiting for someone to discover it. The field did not change. It still had its rocks, mounds and dirt areas. It grew on me. I changed.

We don't have to go somewhere else to find the kingdom of heaven. It is in our midst. We cannot see it. Someone says, "My kids drive me crazy!" Then someone else comes along and says, "Oh, what beautiful, or smart, or pleasant children you have." You do not see what is close to you for the treasure that they are in your life. I had a big sister, Maureen, who was mean and bossy and ugly! Then someone said, "Oh, your sister is so beautiful and good." I said, "What?" I could not see the treasure with whom I lived. I was blind.

The question is not, "How do I find the kingdom of God?" The question is, "What do I have to let go of, so that I can begin to see the kingdom as a treasure in my midst?"