Treasure Hunt, God Style

Recently I've been introduced to this weird and fun idea of Treasure Hunting, Supernatural Style.

There is a book that probably started this whole thing, The Ultimate Treasure Hunt by Kevin Dedmon.  But I have never actually read the book and just went on my very first treasure hunt so don't be assuming I know what I'm talking about because I don't. I'm just really intrigued. 

The subtitle of the book is A Guide to Supernatural Evangelism through Supernatural Encounters.

I think that sounds a little Not-for-Me-Thanks. 

So let me explain it this way: 

You get together with other Jesus lovers and ask God to give you some clues. 

You listen for places, names, colors, articles of clothing, whatever.

You write these words down and the list becomes your Treasure Map.

Then you go see if you can find these Treasures, cleverly disguised as regular people. 

Pray for them or just let them know that they are God's treasures.

You know what I was the most nervous about? The hearing from God part.

But I did hear some things. And some things I wrote down were probably my own imagination. Ha!

So my list looked something like this:

Cold hands

Hat

Orange

Walmart parking lot

Love (relationships)

Teeth

All of our kids were with us too and they all were listening for clues from God. That was awesome. And funny. One of my 6 year-olds had a couple of different town names, one of them an hour away. He was quite disappointed we couldn't go look at all his places.

In the van, we compared notes and decided some of us should go together and we would all keep our eyes open. Sometimes our Treasure Maps needed to be used together.

Ben and the twins and I went to Kroger. His list said:

Kroger

Blue shirt

We walked around the store for 10 minutes and Ben didn't think it was any of the 5 people we saw. <Small side note: Halloween night is the perfect time to grocery shop.> We passed a man in a navy blue sweatshirt standing around looking at magazines. And then I dug out my list. He was wearing a hat. And it was orange. 

Let's give it a whirl.

So we introduced ourselves, said that we were on a Treasure Hunt and told him God says he's the treasure. We told him the clues we had. We had his attention. He said he could use prayer for his family. Love (relationships). And his teeth caught my eye. They had some gaps and some silver in them.

When we were finished, he said we made his day.

I think he made our day.

I never did find anyone with cold hands in the Walmart parking lot. And Madi's guy in the blue and white striped shirt wasn't using a cane. And most of my kids were too shy to actually pray for people. 

But that's ok. I'm a learner, they are learners, we are all learners. It's ok to not get it perfect the first time. Or the next time for that matter.

But how fun was this! On a regular October evening, God was loving on my town and I got to be part of it! 

A little awkward? Maybe. 

Did I miss a few clues? Yep. 

Am I going to do it again? You had better believe it!