When our children were young, their curious minds often attracted them to things they should not have been touching. My natural response tended toward what I called a ‘King Kong’ approach: seizing the item out of their fingers or mouth and giving them a fearsome look so they would be afraid to pick up that item in the future. My wife usually had a much different approach. She offered our children something safer and more attractive to play with. They chose to let go of the first item to take the new offering.

Jesus uses much the same approach with us. It is easy to base our lives on our own wants and desires. But Jesus offers us the riches of his kingdom and life eternal if we will only release our tight grip on the things we’ve collected. Jesus gives us the gift of faith to help us, so that we might realise that his kingdom is far more real and infinitely more valuable than anything we could desire on earth.

Prayer: Dear Lord, open our eyes to see the riches you’ve stored for us. Amen