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The Secret Treasure
Sometimes I joke with my sons, if Indiana Jones had a sister, I would be her. Twice, I have barely stayed one step ahead of death.
On a frosty winter day, my father quickly unloaded the snowmobile. It would be dark soon. With a twinkle in his eye, he asked, “Want to come along?”
“Yes!” What 11-year-old would say no?
I wrapped the new red scarf around my neck that my grandmother had knitted. After climbing aboard, I nestled between my father's big knees. We zoomed off.
Five minutes later without any warning, my head slammed against the handle bars. I slumped against my father. In the cold, he struggled against my winter clothes to make sure my airway was open.
As darkness fell, he lifted me and sprinted toward the lights of the nearest house. I hung like a rag doll in his arms. He phoned my mother to come and pick us up, and we sped to the hospital.
In the emergency room as I lay unconscious, the doctor told my parents that I had sustained a concussion and a skull fracture. He informed them about the possibilities that could result from a closed head injury. A new wave of anxiety swept over them.
Later, my father discovered that my red scarf had gotten caught in the uncovered flywheel of the used snowmobile. Bits of shredded red scarf still hung from it.
Thankfully, after a few weeks, I fully recovered. Like many others, after gaining my strength, I didn't give much thought to what might have happened if I had died. When would I find the secret to life's ultimate treasure and understand the real purpose to life? Despite that close call, I put off searching for the answer.
Only a few years later, now a teenager, I had another harrowing experience like Indiana Jones.
On a balmy summer day, two of my friends agreed to pull me water skiing. Instead of wearing a life jacket, I put on a wet suit. As is typical of teens, the guys drove recklessly, trying to make me fall. And they succeeded.
As the boat circled back around to pick me up, the driver became disoriented and accelerated towards me. My skis slammed against the side of the boat. Instinctively, the driver turned the wheel. And the boat plowed over me.
Trapped under the water, the deadly blades sliced across my chest and abdomen. Seconds later my body bobbed like a dead fish on the surface.
The driver came around again, and the panicked-stricken boys hoisted me into the boat. I had an eight inch gash over my heart. Blood and water flowed down my chest.
At the hospital the doctor said, “Another quarter inch would have been fatal.” One week later in a similar boating accident, a teenaged girl died.
Twice I brushed close to death without understanding the secret or reason for being alive. Many would say I was lucky. Yet if I had died in either of those accidents, I still hadn't discovered life's purpose. Though I had eluded death once again, a prevailing emptiness—that no adventure could satisfy—shadowed me.
A year later, however, I finally discovered the answer. The Bible helped illuminate my path, uncovering life's true treasure. While reading it, God showed me that I just needed to give Him control and follow Jesus.
I finally understood my real purpose in life and prayed, “Jesus, I have tried to live without You. And it doesn't work. I believe that You died for me and rose again from the dead. Please take control of my life. Help me to follow You.”
Being like Indiana Jones' sister and living on the edge of life brought me to a new place. In spite of my misadventures, I discovered the secret to life's ultimate treasure: a relationship with Jesus.
“...the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.”Matthew 13:45-46 (NIV)
Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION (NIV)
Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society.
Used by permission of Zondervan Bible Publishers.
