For years my grandpa dreamed of discovering a big gold nugget. The prospect of finding it drew him back to the creek again and again. He almost always found gold, sometimes just flakes, other times nuggets as large as a pea. Yet the find of a lifetime eluded him. 

One day when grandpa was 92, my dad and brother took him to a creek high in the Sierras where he’d long dreamed of panning. “Prospectors made it rich there,” he said. They searched out the lowest places, winched giant boulders aside, scanned the ground with the gold detector, panned out the gravel. Nothing. The sun hung low when they gave up and headed home.

Have you ever had an experience like that with the Bible? You came to God’s Word expecting to find some treasure of truth you’d never seen before, but left feeling like gained nothing?

I have. There are days when it seems I find little in my personal devotions. Other days my Bible reading yields flakes – a single Bible verse to claim, peace in the midst of the storm, insight for today’s parenting challenge–little bits of gold from my Heavenly Father. 

But I long for more from my Bible study. I yearn for deeper insights into His love and justice, a greater closeness with my King. “My soul thirsts for God, for the living God” (Psalm 42:2). 

Like David, “I rise before dawn and cry for help; I wait for Your words” (Psalm 119:147). 

It’s that desire for more that keeps me coming back to the Bible each day. I don’t always find the big nuggets, but here’s what God has taught me: I won’t find the gold of truth unless I spend time with His Word. 

Think of it this way. My grandpa would never have found gold if he hadn’t regularly prospected at the creek. You have to be in the right place to find gold. In same way, you and I will never find God’s nuggets of truth unless we daily pick up our Bibles and read them. It is how we put ourselves in the right place to find God’s gold so our treasure trove of truth can grow. 

And you never know when God will surprise you with an extra special nugget of truth.

That’s what He did for grandpa. Not long after that fruitless trip to the mountains, grandpa went panning at the creek by his house. This time a glint of gold in the dirt near his truck caught his eye. He reached down and picked up a nugget over an inch in diameter.

How he delighted to show me that nugget! It was his find of a lifetime. Yet grandpa hadn’t worked for it at all. He was simply in the right place at the right time to receive God’s gift to him. 

Dear friend, will you join me in daily coming to God’s Word in search of truth, so that we too will be in the right place at the right time to discover God’s greatest treasures?