Last week my friends became the targets of thieves.  One friend heard a noise in her kitchen and found a thief straddling her window.  Another returned home in early afternoon to find her house totally ransacked.  The emotional jarring of these events is intense, and it underlines the uncertainty of life in this world…..like the  afternoon my teen son’s shiny red sports car vanished from the lot at the Garden State Plaza.

When Jesus taught, he was speaking to folks like us who knew a lot about thieves.  His parables contain thieves who come unexpectedly and owners who attempt to hide their treasures from them.  There was even a thief among Jesus’ closest friends (John 12:6.) Continue reading →