Article June 1, 2015 Issue

Appraising what’s valuable

Robert R. MacKusick

My wife and I went to a local jewelry store with a small bag of items we wanted appraised—a locket watch, a few rings, a necklace or two, and a small garment clasp some friends had given us for one of our very young children. The jeweler returned from the back of the store with news that surprised us. The garment clasp was much more valuable than we had realized because it was 14-karat gold and in very good condition.

This is not an uncommon occurrence. People often discover that something they bought years ago with a few dollars, and may have since stored away, turns out to be surprisingly valuable.

This has made me think how we, as earnest Christians, can become more appreciative of the spiritual insights and Bible truths that we have gleaned over the years and retained, the value of which we might not fully appreciate. As we look more often at those insights and truths—“reappraise” them with a greater appreciation of their value—we see things we might not have seen before and that stir us to a change of heart and consciousness. Our memory of why and how those ideas first came to us might be refreshed. We might value them even more than before.

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