The Treasure
When he was young he was a huge baseball fan. His favorite team was the Washington Senators. His favorite player was Frank Howard. A short time after the Senators moved to Texas, to become the Texas Rangers, they traded his favorite player, Frank Howard, to the Detroit Tigers. Until Washington finally got another baseball team, a few years ago, he rooted for the Detroit Tigers.
When he was growing up, his parents didn’t have much money. He wanted to play baseball and be just like Frank Howard. One day he was walking past a sporting goods store and he saw a brand new baseball glove in the window. He asked his Dad to buy it for him. His Dad said he couldn’t afford it, but if he worked and earned half of it, he would pay the other half. The little boy went to work cutting the neighbor’s yards and doing any odd job he could find to help him earn enough for his half of the glove.
The young lad finally earned enough for his half and soon the glove was in his possession. He wore the glove everywhere to break it in. Frank Howard wore the number 9 for the first part of his career with the Senators and he wore the number 33 in his last years with the Senators. The young lad took a permanent marker and wrote the number 9 on one side of the inside of the glove. Then he took the permanent marker and wrote the number 33 on the other side inside the glove.
Many have dreamed of becoming President. Few have realized those dreams. I’m sure many of the victors have crossed that White House threshold in the amazement of the treasure they have just received by becoming its resident. He probably was no different.
He wasn’t one to get too involved with the serious stuff. He would delegate those tasks to a few of his friends. No, what he wanted to do was to have some fun and that is just what he set out to do. It probably didn’t help his cause much that he was probably one of the least prepared men to ever hold the office. But who needs to be prepared when you know how to delegate?
Poker games, golf and yes, baseball were some of the things he was known to enjoy. While he was President he attended at least 5 baseball games. Frank Howard wasn’t even born yet. In three of these professional baseball games he threw out the first pitch. He also witnessed the first shutout at Yankee Stadium. Babe Ruth even homered in that game. In one game, in 1922, the son of Hall of Famer Walter Johnson, Walter Johnson, Jr., sat on his lap during the first inning. Yes, he loved to have a good time.
Some of the stories in the Bible are hard to understand. For example, if you read something in the Old Testament about the value of the color purple, it can be hard to understand. After all, we can just walk down to the local box store and buy all the purple items that we want. In Bible situations like these, it often helps to step out of our modern world and look into their world as it was then. In this example, purple was a very rare color for clothing and so to find something that could permanently “stain” your cloth that color was a true treasure indeed.
As our young lad grew older the glove ended up in the bottom of the toy chest. Later the glove got moved to a pile in the closet. Eventually, who knows what happened to it. He moved on to other things and his interest in baseball waned.
One day, when he was older, he turned on his TV and the World Series was on. He decided he was only going to watch a few minutes of it, but, surprisingly, he sat through the whole game. Then he tuned in to watch the next game and the next, until the World Series was over. The next season he even went to a few games. He started developing an interest in the game again. Then he started collecting baseball cards. It wasn’t a serious collection. When he went to yard sales or thrift stores he would look through the cards and if he saw one he liked, and it didn’t cost too much, he would purchase it. He was surprised by how many he was able to find from his youth.
The Constitution has a vague description of the job of the President. But as these people are sworn in, they pledge to “…protect and defend…” this Constitution. There is no reading between the lines. There is nothing about just protecting and defending the parts you agree with or like. If a President doesn’t like parts of the Constitution he can work to changed it, but until that happens part of his job is to uphold the Constitution. The President is also not above the Constitution. The Constitution was written for him just like it is for every citizen in this republic. But what if obeying the Constitution interferes with your fun? Does that give you the right to disobey the rules it sets forth?
One of the most controversial amendments to the Constitution was the eighteenth. It was Prohibition (prohibition of alcohol beverages in the United States). It was in effect when he was President, but that did not stop the free flow of alcohol at his White House parties. After all, that might take away from the fun he was having. Although Prohibition (the Eighteenth Amendment) was basically overturned, in 1933 with the Twenty-first Amendment, it was still the law of the land while he was President.
Jesus was known for the parables he told. The Amplified Bible describes a parable as: “…illustrations or comparisons put beside truths to explain them.” In Matthew 13:44, Jesus has a brief one verse description of the kingdom of heaven that He explains in the form of a parable. He describes it as (King James Version): “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field.” The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure.
One day our baseball fan was at a thrift store that had a large selection of baseball cards. Out of the corner of his eye he saw an old worn glove sitting way back on a shelf. He picked it up, and just for grins he decided to look inside the glove. Imagine his surprise when he saw a number 9 on one side and a number 33 on the other. A tear crossed his eyes as the memories flashed by. The price of the glove was then no object.
Warren G. Harding is consistently ranked as one of the worse Presidents the United States has ever had. His hands off approach of not having much to do with the daily operations of running the country led to his friends taking advantage of their positions. It was one of the most corrupt administrations in our country’s history. The Teapot Dome scandal lasted years after his sudden death while he was in office. My guess is that he had no idea of the value of the treasure he held.
Isn’t it strange how things seem to happen in life. We find treasures and before we know it, we look back and they are gone. What happened? The treasure didn’t let go of us, we let go of it.
Prayer: Dear Mighty Father, Often the treasures You place in my life become routine or ordinary. Grant my eyes the vision that never loses the luster of the gifts You have given me. Amen.
