TREASURES
My grandfather yelled, “Get to the cellar!” At 10 years old, I remember saying “Papa Judge, why?” He said look out the window. What I saw is something I will never forget! It was a “perfect” tornado coming across the field. You know the kind that was in the Wizard of Oz. It looked like a dark grey top; swirling, headed our direction. We all ran, with the wind threatening to pick us up off our feet. I remember how fast my heart was racing and how scared I was! Luckily the tornado did not destroy my grandparents’ home and country store in Victory, Oklahoma. (Actually, I am sitting at my grandparents roll top desk that was used in the store, writing this blog post.) There was another time, my brother and I went by bus to visit them and the first thing we did was go to the cellar with our suitcases in tow!
We have had a series of tornadoes in the last couple of weeks, here in Missouri. that have changed many people’s lives; destroying their homes and businesses. In my town, the sirens have gone off telling us to take shelter. I do not have a basement, so I have to get into the bathtub for safety.
Tornadoes are a part of people’s lives, especially for those who live in Oklahoma or the Midwest, in the spring time. They have to have a plan in their minds before the sirens are blowing telling them to take cover. Is there a certain “thing” that we have in mind to grab on our way to the cellar (or the bathtub?) Of course, kids and pets are on the top of our list, but there are just some things we have that just cannot be replaced! I think of the many albums of pictures that I have of long ago departed loved ones. I think of all the treasures that I have that were my grandmothers and mothers. My mother loved Norman Rockwell. I have her collection now in a lit glass cabinet. Also, in that cabinet are Precious Moments figurines that my grandmother cherished. For several years, I gave my mother, Home Interior Victorian ladies. They are housed in that same cabinet. I also have a very special set of English cottages that my parents had purchased when my dad was stationed in England, in the Air Force. I was born there, so they are very precious to me. None of these things can be replaced! But in reality, it is all just stuff! Collections that we have to dust and position on the shelves in just the right way. Treasures that have no value to anyone else but ourselves.
The Bible talks about treasures. Matthew 6:19-21 reads “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” What is this passage talking about? How do we get treasures in our hearts? This passage is not telling us that we are not to have “stuff” that we cherish, but rather that we are not to make that our focus for our lives. Tornadoes can demolish the things we value on this earth, but no one can cause us to lose our faith that is within our hearts; if we treasure our faith, hope and continue to love others as God loves us.
In 1999, my only aunt and uncle were in the middle of the Moore, Oklahoma tornado. Thank the good Lord, that they had a cellar built into the ground of their home, where they survived with several of their neighbors. When my uncle pushed open the door, what he saw was devastation all around him. Their home had been completely destroyed! They did not even have a toothbrush! The only thing standing was the wall around the bathtub and the tub itself, (guess it might have been a good place to go after all!) and a wall where a clock still hung, with the correct time, and on that same wall, a chest of drawers that had not been touched. My aunt was so terrified that it took her a while to climb out of that cellar. Several months later I had a chance to sit down and talk to her about it. I asked her if she had ever wondered why this had happened to her? She answered “why not me?” Just because she was living her life the best way she could for the Lord, did not mean that devastating things will not happen to us. All that stuff that had “blown” away was just that-stuff! God helped to spare them from being killed. She still had her faith and hope in God and in an eternal home one day. Some interesting things happened in the midst of this storm, while clean-up was happening. My uncle had a very special Bible that he had for years and that he could not find. It ended up, that several weeks later, he got a call from a farmer who had found that Bible in the middle of his cow pasture, miles away. When I visited them, last summer, he showed me that Bible. It is duck taped on the outside, underlined and circled passages on the inside. That was not a treasure to anyone else, but him. He was so blessed to have it back. Also, in their attic in a big trunk, there were many quilts that my grandmother had lovingly stitched by hand. Very special but lost forever! A couple of years ago, my second cousin-his granddaughter, just happened to go into a thrift store. There in a bundle, with ribbon tied around them, were some quilt squares. She picked them up and low and behold, there was my grandmothers name, Inez, on one of them!!! It was pieces of one of those quilts that had blown away so many years before! (Sometimes when women got together and worked together on a quilt, each woman would stitch their name somewhere on one of the squares.) My uncle thought he would never see either one of those treasures again. But thanks to some caring people, he was able to get them back in his possession.
Think about how important this stuff is when we look at the big picture. They are important to us in the here and now. But we are here only for a few short years. Then, our kids or grandkids have to go through all this stuff and either get rid of it or keep it. Many years from now, when family are going through my uncles’ things and come across that worn out, duck taped Bible, they are not going to know the importance of it to him. More than likely, it will get thrown away. Treasures from a life time ago, that no one wants to care for, in the present generation.
My daughter tells a story about when they lived in an apartment, that she looked out the window and an older woman’s things were laying out for the trash truck to come and pick up. She had evidently passed away. She had no relatives or friends to take care of all her stuff. The apartment manager had just piled all of her treasures out by the road to be taken to the trash dump. She saw people walking on pictures and not caring about any of the belongings that had been important to her. Feeling sad for the lady, my daughter went down to the pile of things and retrieved an old black and white picture of a boy about 6-8 years old. Had that been her husband or her father as a young man? Nothing written on the back, so no way of knowing, but she took it back home with her and saved it from going to the dump as a piece of garbage, instead of a treasure to that older lady.
At the end of time, every earthly treasure we own will be destroyed. We cannot take these earthly things with us when we die. We will all stand before God on the judgement day. I will not have my pictures or my mother’s Norman Rockwell collection, clutched to my chest. I will stand alone before God who does not see these earthly treasures but rather sees the things that have been treasured in our hearts and shown through our actions on this earth.
Is it wrong to collect these things? Is it wrong to feel pain and sadness when these treasures are taken away from us by a devastating tornado or some other reason? No, but it is wrong if that is our focus of our lives. That is all we are working for on this earth-to have stuff! Our main focus every day is to make money to acquire more “things.” Our treasures should be from our hearts through acts of kindness-being there for people who go through devastating storms-be there for a friend who is facing cancer-being a good example to our children & grandchildren-be joyful in the midst of pain because we know that we have the hope of eternal life with God where all of these earthly treasures mean nothing. Praising God and being obedient servants of His; those are the treasures of the heart!
So next time you are dusting off those treasures, evaluate yourself to see if you are exhibiting treasures of the heart for others to see, or are you just collecting stuff and dust! Treasures! There is nothing we can do about losing our earthly treasures to a tornado, but there is something we can do today-right now-to keep the treasures of our hearts “dusted off” and on display for others to see through us, how to live for our God and Father!
Are you storing up earthly treasures or treasures of the heart?
(The picture at the first of this blog is the lit cabinet with the treasures I have talked about in this blog. And the most important of my treasures-my little great-grandbaby, Delaney Mae! For some reason, when I am trying to post, the picture of Delaney is sideways. So, excuse me if it shows up that way after I post, good grief!)
Till next time! Keela