Bill grew up in an affluent family.  He had all the comforts that a young person could imagine.  His parents were also devout Christians and took him to church regularly.  Despite all of his advantages, Bill went through a time a heated rebellion during his high school years.  It was the custom in his affluent neighborhood for the wealthiest families to give their children cars as graduation presents.  It was a status kind of thing.  So Bill convinced his father to go out shopping for cars with him.  Bill spotted the car that he wanted, and made sure that his dad knew the make and model.  So Bill approached the day of his graduation with a sense of excitement.  He knew that he really didn't deserve the gift for he hadn't been acting like a good son, but he hoped nevertheless that he might receive the car as a graduation present.  Following his graduation ceremony, when the family returned home, Bill's father handed his son a gift-wrapped box.  Bill opened it to see that it was a lovely, leather-bound Bible.  Bill couldn't believe it.  He had wanted a car and his father had given to him a Bible?  In a rage, Bill threw the Bible on the floor, rushed out the front door, and ran down the street.  The more he thought about it, the angrier he became.  Bill interpreted the Bible as his parent's way of telling him that he had better straighten out his life.  Bill decided never to return home again.  So he left home without even returning to pick up his clothing, moved to another town, and never saw his father again.  Years passed.  His parents had no way of knowing where he was or how to communicate with him.  But Bill continued to be filled with anger and bitterness.  Finally, over a decade later, Bill happened to run into one of the old family friends in the town where he was living.  The family friend told Bill that his father had recently passed away, and that his mother was all alone now.  This news softened Bill's heart and he decided that he would return to pay a visit to his widowed mother.  His mother was overjoyed to see Bill.  She cried and laughed all at once.  And Bill was amazed at how nostalgic he became in returning home again.  As he was going through all of the things that he had left behind in his hurry to leave, he happened upon that Bible that had been given to him as a graduation present.  Bill wiped the dust off and opened it up.  To his amazement, he found tucked away in the front cover a cashier's check, dated the day of his graduation - a check in the exact amount of the car that he had wanted for his present.  Isn't Bill's story a tragic one?  An entire family suffering such pain just because of a young man's anger.  And all the time the gift was there - he just wouldn't open the Bible to receive it.  But as tragic as Bill's story is, it is no more tragic than the story that is continually going on in the lives of most people in our country today.  God has given to us his Word.  The Bible is an extension of the very person and character of God himself.  We can have an experience with the true and living God through his Word.  Yet many people go day after day, month after month without even bothering to open God's Word and find the richest of all treasures contained inside it.  So they continue their unhappy, angry, frustrated lives.  Or perhaps they are fairly satisfied in life with most things going their way.  But they are missing a treasure that could never be purchased at any price - the treasure of having a personal relationship with God through his Word.