Artwork by Kelly and Daniel Venturo
In an open sunny meadow in Colorado there was a prairie dog town. All over the grassy field were dotted little mounds of dirt, and on each mound there was a little opening. Each of these openings was the front door to some little prairie dog’s house. Thousands of prairie dogs lived in the town. They all led busy lives of work and play, working together to gather food, clean their burrows, and always to keep an eye on the sky in case there should be a cruel hawk flying overhead. If a prairie dog noticed such a predator in the sky, or the shadow of one falling over the grass, he let out a shrill cry that could be heard all over the town, and all the prairie dogs would scurry to their mounds and slip through the openings into the safety of their tunnels.
But of all the prairie dogs in the town, there was one prairie dog who was different. His name was Pepper, and he was an odd individual. He didn’t talk much and hardly noticed any of the other dogs in the town—his mind was on a totally different planet. He didn’t think only of food and burrows and predators like all the other prairie dogs—he had bigger ideas, bigger dreams. The other prairie dogs couldn’t understand him. They whispered in wonder to each other about him whenever they saw him snuffling through the meadow. He might go off in any direction, but he always made a beeline to the edge of the meadow, farther from the town than any other prairie dog would dare to go. And he always came back with something. Just an odd little bit of garbage that nobody else would take much notice of—a sturdy piece of rope, a uniquely shaped bottle, a chunk of discarded wood—and he carried it all back to his burrow and dragged it down inside. To all of the other prairie dogs, these things were just trash. But to Pepper they were treasures. And what all the other prairie dogs did not know was what Pepper did with his treasures once he had them inside. They didn’t know what was inside his burrow.
The truth was, the inside of Pepper’s burrow was pretty interesting. In fact, it was quite fantastic. All of the little pieces of junk that Pepper had collected over the years he had made into an enormous playground inside his house. A gargantuan playground. A twisty and intricate playground. The kind of playground every kid wants to play on. There were towers and forts and tunnels and secret passages. There were rope walks and rope ladders and rope swings. There were long thin swings and short round swings. There were flat disc-shaped swings and net swings. And of course, there were all different kinds of slides—tall metal slides, tube slides, twisty slides, terrifically fast slides, leisurely slow slides—anything you can imagine was there.
Now most people would never believe that there could be such a playground inside of a prairie dog mound. But I have seen this mound for myself. I’ve never been inside of course—I would never fit into a prairie dog mound. But I did see a prairie dog mound once with a long, thick rope sticking out of the hole—so I assume it must have been Pepper’s house and that the rope must have been a part of another creative idea of his to add to his incredible playground!
Since I have never been inside Pepper’s burrow, I don’t know exactly what his playground looked like. But I have used my imagination to try to draw Pepper for you on one of his swings. Now this is what you can do: grab a piece of paper and a pencil and some crayons or markers and use your imagination to draw what you think Pepper’s cool playground looked like!
Now for our lesson. I told you that all of the things that Pepper dragged back to his burrow seemed like junk, but to Pepper, they were treasures. People have many different treasures. They treasure pets, toys, good looks, and strong bodies. They treasure being popular at school or looking cool.
The Bible talks about the most important treasure of all. Listen to this story that Jesus told found in Matthew 13:44:
“ ‘The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.’”
The “kingdom of heaven” is the greatest treasure. Jesus is saying that the kingdom of heaven is so important that, once you find it, it is worth selling all you have, all your other treasures, in order to get it. But how do you find the kingdom of heaven? It all goes back to the Gospel I’ve been talking about so much. You are a guilty sinner and you deserve to be punished in Hell when you die. But Jesus, God as a man, died instead of you to take the punishment for your sin. He was buried but came alive again, defeating death. If you ask Him to, He will forgive your sin and clean it away from you. You must trust Him to do this. Once you have done this, you are part of the kingdom of heaven! When you die, you will live forever with Jesus in Heaven!
Do you see how this is an incredible treasure?
Unfortunately, many people do not believe that the kingdom of heaven is a treasure at all—like the prairie dogs around Pepper, they think it is only junk. They think Christians are silly and make fun of them. They go on all their lives collecting all kinds of treasures that they think are important—toys, money, cars, houses, good jobs, popularity—and they forget that one day they will die. It could be today, tomorrow, ten years from now, but they will die. And they will not be able to take any of their treasures that they’ve worked so hard for with them. They will go to live forever in either Heaven or Hell—Heaven if they have trusted in Jesus to take away their sin, Hell if they have not.
Do you see now that the kingdom of heaven is more important than any other treasure you can get on earth? You will die one day, and you don’t know when. You could die tomorrow even! You won’t be able to take any of your stuff with you, but you will live forever in either Heaven or Hell. So getting treasures on earth really isn’t that important, is it? Please think about the kingdom of heaven today and make sure that Jesus has cleaned away your sin so that you can be with Him in Heaven when you die!
If you are a Christian, you should still remember that your life on earth, though it can seem so big and important, really doesn’t matter much at all compared with eternity after you die. So don’t try to be like the sinful world. Don’t try to collect stuff, treasures, here on earth. Make Jesus your treasure. Read your Bible every day and talk to Him by praying. Praise Him and thank Him for all He’s done for you. Obey what He tells you to do in His Word. Share the Gospel with the people around you as He has commanded you. Then your treasures will be rewards in Heaven (1 Cor. 3:12-14).
Don’t forget to draw what you imagine Pepper’s incredible playground to look like! When you are finished, copy out Matthew 13:44, the verse I gave you earlier about hidden treasure, on the front. Then hang it up somewhere in your house where you will see it often so that you can remember the most important treasure!
Read Matthew 6:19-21 to see what else Jesus says about treasure!
Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers, Used by permission. All rights reserved.