CALIFORNIA GOLD
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| Gold is An Important Commodity |
Who wouldn't enjoy having more gold as a personal budget booster?
I used to get a kick out of hearing The Oak Ridge Boys sing about all the gold in California being "in the middle of a bank in Beverly Hills under somebody else's name."
I didn't think much about it until I served my husband some appetizing orange slices on his breakfast plate, long after we had left that state.
"Mm-m, delicious," he said, "where did you get these?"
"Walmart. Seventy cents each."
"What! Each?"
"That's right. Kind of hard for a boy raised in Central California to understand, isn't it?"
"Yes, it is. Dad must have had hundreds of dollars hanging on those four orange trees out by the old garage."
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| A Tree of Valuable Oranges |
We used to bring them into the house by the bucketful. But I took those big juicy oranges for granted, along with other free items I had to purchase when we moved from that area.
Things like strawberries, grapes, asparagus, kiwi, peaches, lemons, grapefruit and persimmons seemed priced like gold!
The Bible lists nine invaluable character qualities called The Fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23). Absolutely no price can be put on those, but did you know the Bible says your faith is more precious than gold (1 Peter 1:7)? That's quite a comparison since gold is a commodity in great demand.
I see a lot of signs around town that say, "We Buy Gold," but they don't want nuggets straight from the mine. They want pure gold.
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| Tested Faith is Like Gold |
Gold of that quality comes from a refiner's fire. Heat removes impurities.
Life if full of hard spots, rough patches, troubles, trials or whatever you want to call them. They are the fire that tests our faith and proves it genuine.
God is interested in gold, but it's not the gold in California. It's what is in our hearts.
