Storing Up Treasures

Imagine for a moment with me, will you?  Close your eyes and picture the items you treasure most in your home.  Don't be sacrificial now and say family...be realistic.  Picture those things that you can't imagine parting with.  Categorize them in your mind. 

Imagine now that everything you owned suddenly disappeared.  All around you, nothing.  Imagine the feeling that would accompany it.  Is it relief?  Sorrow?  Self pity?  Selfishness?

What would you miss the most?  Think about it.  Then ask yourself if you value those things more than you should.  Ask yourself if, when God calls you home, they will be of value to anyone else.

I spent yesterday helping my mom, my auntie, and my uncle clean out my grandpa's apartment.  As we sorted and cleaned, I realized how many treasures hold no value after we are gone.  Piles were made for garbage, for donations and for keeps.  The keep pile was a lot smaller than the other two.

And here's what I realized - I valued and loved my grandpa, but it wasn't because of what he owned.  It's because he was my grandpa.  At the end of the day, the few little mementos I kept from his place were because they reminded me of him, but in the end most of what he kept in his life held no significance for anyone.  As we carried out bags to the trash bin, I realized just how fleeting this life is and I was reminded about the verses in Matthew 6.  They say,

"Don't hoard treasure down here where it gets eaten by moths and corroded by rust or - worse! - stolen by burglars.  Stockpile treasure in heaven, where it's safe from moth and rust and burglars. It's obvious, isn't it?  The place where your treasure is, is the place you most want to be, and end up being." (The Message)

The NIV says, "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also". 

Someday, I will close my eyes for the final time and none of this will go with me when I leave this earth.  When I get to Heaven, what kind of treasures will I have stored there?  Will I have stored a kind word and helping hand?  Will my treasures be love and trust?  Or will I have left all my treasures behind on earth only to find out that I was storing my treasures in the wrong place.  What kind of legacy will I leave behind?  One that shows that my treasures were not of this world or one that shows I accumulated a lot of stuff.  Will I gain the whole world but lose my soul?

Don't get me wrong.  Possessions are a part of this life but they can't BE life.  I'm still learning this lesson and I'm definitely not where I want to be, but I'm conscious of it.  It is nestled in the corner of my mind, reminding me when I feel my greedy human nature surfacing, that this is not where I want to store my treasures.