WEEK FIVE: HEAVEN’S TREASURE

If you were to come into my house, in one of the rooms you would see an old picture of a man holding onto the bridle of two mules…and somewhere close to that photo sits a brass bell. To anyone who sees it, those items don’t seem like anything more than someone’s choice for décor, but to me they hold a special place.  You see, the photo is one of my great-grandfather and two of his mules, and the bell is the bell off one of his two canal boats that he used to haul goods up and down the C & O Canal. They are not valuable monetarily, but they hold great value to me and my family. I’m fairly sure that if you were to poke around your own house, you would come across something that you feel similarly about. Value is not necessarily based on how much money something is worth, but rather it is based on what that item means to the person who has it.

So, what do you value most? When we were younger, many of us would have defined “rich” by what we had or were able to get; however, when life happens, that definition can quickly change. Suddenly, things like making ends meet or keeping bills up to date or planning for retirement take precedent, consequently moving that “rich” line in our minds.

In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:21) In other words, you can tell a lot about a person based upon what they treasure most. What we treasure demonstrates what we trust, and you will become like the treasure you pursue. So what are you pursuing? Are you after God, or are you after something else? Are you seeking to emulate God, or are you seeking to emulate something else?

God is a generous God! John 3:16 says that God loves us so much that he gave his one and only son to become the sacrifice for the sin we could do nothing about ourselves. He in turn invites us to join him in his generosity, because whatever you set your attention on will determine what you serve…and Jesus clearly states that we cannot serve two masters. It will either be God or it will be something else entirely.

If we are to see the kingdom of heaven come down to earth, we must go all in. We commit all we have to God: our time, our talent, and our treasure. We can’t do everything by ourselves, but all of us together can make all the difference in the world. It’s not what I can do or what we can do; it is what God does and will do through us together.