>>When it was time for my family to sell our home in which I grew up, we had a lot of things to get rid of. And I can remember going into the attic and sorting things out with my sister, my sister who likes things. I was kind of watching her carefully and she was going through my grandfather’s suitcase and I always had one eye on her.  

 And I see that she pulled out a ring box and I could see her get very excited. And she goes and she opens up the ring box, but she turned away from me so I couldn’t see. And the next thing I knew, she screamed and she threw it. Well, I went and I looked at it. What it was, the pearl of great price, that she thought she had? 

It was my grandfather’s glass eye! [laughter] True. The pearl of great price, the treasure and life. You know. Solomon was so wise. As a young man, God said he’d give him anything. And then he said, “What do you want?” He said, “I want to have an understanding heart.” Now that is a pearl of great price. That is a treasure to hold on to. That is true wisdom. I recently read a book that I thoroughly enjoyed and the book talks about gathering wisdom in life. A 

nd then the second half of life, what you do is you take that wisdom that you have and you crystallize it. All those learnings that you learn in life, you crystallized and it really becomes wisdom. It’s what you’ve gathered and what you’ve gained and what you’ve collected and what you’ve treasured. 

And then you take that wisdom and you share it with others. A wonderful understanding of life. What is the true treasure that you have in life? What is the understanding of wisdom that you have and how do you want to impart that with others? I 

 think people who are truly wise and people who truly understand, people who have the same kind of heart that Solomon asked for – an understanding heart, realizes that our true treasure in life is not found in things. Our true treasure in life is found in our relationships. Our relationships with one another and certainly our relationship with the Lord. ‘From Strength to Strength’ was the name of the book I was referring to. I would encourage anyone and all of you to read it.  

To realize the importance of wisdom, the wisdom that Solomon asks for, the wisdom that gathers all the information we have as people of faith. To treasure it and then to share it is gift to others.