I love watching the TV show Antique Roadshow. I love watching the look on people’s faces when they discover what they thought was just a good buy or something ‘neat’, is suddenly worth a ton of money. What was once stored in the attic or placed in a box or closet, now has to be insured because of its value. It went from being something they bought at a garage sale or was passed down through the family, to now being something they considered to be a treasure.

We all have things we consider to be our treasures. We have them put away so no one can mess with them or we have them hidden in a box in our secret hiding place. I have this very small cap pistol that is no bigger than my thumb, but that you can actually fire caps in it. I got this cap pistol back in the third grade in a trade with my good friend Tony. He wanted my bright new orange pencil box that I just got and I wanted his tiny cap pistol, so the trade was on. That took place almost 60 years ago and I still have it put away in our safe deposit box at the bank, where what I consider to be my treasure is safe. It’s silly when I think about it. Things we tend to treasure may be silly to other people, but to us, they mean the world.

In Matthew 2:1-12 we read the account where some Magi from the east were on a journey to find this newborn child called Jesus. This angered King Herod so he instructed the Magi to report back to him when they found the child Jesus,  as he too wanted to go and worship Him, wrong.

When they Magi finally found the house where the child Jesus was,  they entered the home and the moment they saw the child Jesus with His mother Mary, they bowed down and worshipped Him. Worship is very important to Jesus. When He made His entry into Jerusalem, a week before He would die on  the cross, the whole crowd of disciples began to joyfully praise the Lord in loud voices and some of the Pharisees in the crowd told Jesus to rebuke His disciples. Jesus said in Luke 19:40 “I tell you if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.” Hear me, I never want any stone to cry our in my place, right.

After the Magi worshipped Jesus we read they ‘opened their treasures’ and presented Jesus with gifts of gold, incense and myrrh, very precious items. They didn’t stop at the nearby 99 cent store, or go to the discount rack or to a garage sale to get something to bring to Jesus. Instead, they ‘opened their treasures’ and presented Jesus with items that were precious and worth much to them as well.

As we enter the Christmas season, we are bombarded with TV commercials and want ads that try to make us think we must have their products. Many will go into debt, work any overtime they can get or do whatever just so they can be able to buy something they must have. If you were to approach them right after they bought whatever they were dying to have and you asked them to part with it, I am pretty sure you would hear a resounding, NO!! It has now become their treasure.

Do you have anything that you own that would be very difficult to part with if the Lord asked you to give it to Him. Jesus says in Matthew 6:21 “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” The Magi could first bow down and worship Jesus because that was where their heart was. Opening their treasures and giving precious gifts that were dear to them to Jesus was nothing for them to do for their heart was already focused on worshipping Him.

If we have anything or an emotion that we don’t want to part with because it means the world to us, then we truly can’t worship Jesus to the extent He would like. Open your treasures this Christmas and give them to the Lord. He is more precious and valuable than anything we could ever attain in this life. He truly is our treasure.