Things I think I've learned

One day Jesus casually tells his disciiples that it would be easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. It's quite a hyperbole, saying more than is necessary to say that it would be impossible - for the most part. But Christ doesn't say it would be impossible, only that it would conurre up the image of a camel, somehow, passing through the eye of a needle.
It occured to me that one way to invision this, considering that a camel is in viewing distance, is to imagine someone holding the needle to their eye. With their eye looking through the eye, and being a sufficient distance away, the image of the camel indeed passes through the eye of a needle. You have to admit that this is the only practical way to get a camel through a needle's eye. Off course thte camel remains a fixed distance away; the observer can approach only so far before the camel ceases to pass through the eye into the person's eye. The person's eye was considered by the ancients to the be the window of the soul. So in my imagining Jesus is refering to wealth's relationship to the soul as a quality of entering the kingdom of heaven.
A camel is a means of conveying wealth for long journeys.
The person who would view their camel laden wealth through the needle's eye cannot ride it, cannot even get very close to it. Their wealth remains, not at hand, but at the limits of their horizon. It can more easily be used by others than by its owner.
Jesus' saying relates to his parable of the rich man responding to his abundance by building bigger barns - hoarding his wealth at hand. Through the eye of a needle we might look at our possessions, our house, our cars, our land, our cash, and ask ourselves Would you really give this in exchange for your soul?
What has value when seen through the eye of a needle? A thread perhaps that we might mend a garmet with or that we might stitch a wound with. Consider the use of the needle: how it changes the nature of the wealth, from something hoarded to something that can heal, something that can bring the fabric of our lives together.
Jesus' invitation is not just that wealth be given away, but that it be used to heal the souls of others. When used for healing wealth is taken into the fabric of the kingdom. The rich man divests his wealth not as the price of admission, but in acknowledgement of being in relationship with God and with the community of faith.
When we look through the eye of a needle we see all we have as not ours but as the warp and woof of the kingdom, a tapestry we've participated in, but which ultimate artistry is God's.