Finding treasure is one thing, gaining access to it is quite another. So next time you take your money from a cash machine, spare a thought for Scottish inventor John Shepherd-Barron who came up with the idea. The first of its kind was unveiled by Barclays in Enfield, London 50 years ago. Today there are 70,000 of them across the country and millions throughout the world. As long as you have cash in your account you can access it almost anywhere, day or night.
In a similar way the next time you open a Bible spare a thought for the courageous men who risked and lost their lives to translate it from Latin into English, and for Henry VIII who some 500 years ago decreed that it should be read in every church in England. A book containing the greatest treasure on earth – the message of God’s love and His invitation to eternal life, summed up in the words of Jesus who declared Himself to be ‘the Way, the Truth and the Life’ – and which had been kept hidden from the common people for centuries, was now freely available.
Unlike most bank accounts, however, the treasure contained in the Bible in inexhaustible. The only question is whether we will choose to draw on it.
