“And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.” (Matthew 19:24). Most explanations that I've heard of this parable say that the rich man is the camel, and the eye of the needle is the strait and narrow gate that leads to the Kingdom of God. But what if it's the other way around? The problem with any of us feeling that it will be hard or impossible to give up all of our worldly wealth (especially if we happen to have accumulated quite a bit of it), is that we are thinking far, far too small. Our vision, or our “eye”, has shrunk down to the width of a needle. If all we can think of is how rich we are in this life, it will be easier to squeeze a camel through the eye of a needle than for us to receive all that the Father has for us. It's hard to get exact numbers on who was the richest person of all time but a likely candidate is Augustus Caesar, who may have had under his possession as much as 5% of the total wealth in the world. Five percent of all wealth for a single man along millions or even billions may seem astronomically high - if any one person today owned 5% of the global wealth they'd have 25 trillion dollars, or, roughly the entire GDP of the United States - but how do such vast sums compare to the wealth that awaits those faithful servants who enter into the Kingdom of God? Our Heavenly Father has promised that all He has will be ours - not 5% of one world but 100% of world after world after world. 25 trillion dollars isn't just a needle in a haystack by comparison, it's a needle lost in an infinite and ever expanding field of alfalfa. The truth is, if we keep our needle-like focus zeroed in on how much riches we can hold onto from this life, we're not just stopping a single camel from getting through to us, but a huge herd of them. Let us all throw our needles away and open our hearts wide to receive all that the Father has for us.
