Value

Value

Today I spent all day on the large loader moving dirt, sand and crushed stone around for the new septic field.  We are installing an additional one for the new houses being constructed across the wall.  A small tree needed to be removed which was easily accomplished with this huge machine.  I carried it over to the levee for later disposal.

About an hour later I noticed two kids around nine or ten talking to Mono.  I didn’t pay much attention but later noticed those two kids with machetes hacking the limbs off of the little tree.  An hour later they were cutting up the small trunk into sections.  By evening all that was left was the root ball.  I can’t imagine what they ended up doing with the rest; it was just a scrub tree with thorns.

I imagine those kids thought they had struck a gold mine.  They must have run home after Mono told them they could have the tree to get their machetes.  They worked hard to cut it up and haul it away.  I know because I watched them from the loader window.  They would hack at the trunk, then rest.  Then they would twist off limbs, back and forth until they broke.  They sweat and worked hard at their project; they stuck to it until the job was finished.

As I reflected on their perseverance I thought of the man in the parable who found a treasure in a field.  He covered it up and sold all he had in order to buy the field and recover the treasure.  That locust tree was a treasure to those two Haitians; apparently they saw something of value that they were willing to trade labor and sweat for.

I wonder how often we, as Christians, discover things of value in our walk with Christ that can radically change the lives of others, or even ourselves.  Are we willing to work as hard as those two Haitians in order to share that benefit or partake in that blessing?  Or do we just let it lie because our spiritual eyes don’t see the value?