I visited a church last year and heard a children’s lesson that has been on my mind ever since. It was an object lesson: in front of the kids that day was a treasure box. The teacher pulled a series of items out of the box—dollar bills, toys, a soccer ball—and one by one he explained how these things are not really treasures at all. Once he had gone through everything else, from the bottom of the box he picked up an old Bible. “God’s Word is our real treasure!” he concluded.

It sounded innocuous. Most questions in the kids’ lessons at church can be answered with “God”, “The Bible” or “Jesus” to the satisfaction of the asker. But just because it’s a basic question doesn’t mean that any answer will do as long as it sounds good. This can be very dangerous.

I think I was the only person in attendance that Sunday who took issue with the lesson (it was part of the main service). Probably no one else even thought twice about it. What bothered me was this: The Bible is not our treasure. Jesus Christ is our treasure! The Bible is only a treasure map. Certainly we cannot know Christ apart from the Bible, but the teacher that morning delivered the whole lesson without once mentioning the name of Jesus.

I am reminded of Jesus’ story about the man who found a treasure in a field, and then went home and sold all he had so he could buy the field. Did he do it for a Bible, or was Jesus talking about something else?

Now contrast this with another children’s lesson from another church. It was mostly the same—pulling objects out of a box one at a time to teach kids about treasure—except, after all of the bills and balls were removed, there was nothing left. The real treasure is not something we can keep in a box.