Thoughts for the Day

‘Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions, and give alms. Make purses for yourselves that do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Thoughts

I've been clearing out my bungalow prior to moving house, and it has generated much thought about the sheer amount of stuff I have accumulated. However, some of it has also caused me to do some deep thinking about what might be termed 'treasure'. I came across the silk map of Italy which had been sewn into my father's clothes when he worked behind the lines in Italy during the Second World War. As a member of the SAS he lived in caves in the mountains, training the resistance workers. The map was a testament to a normally gentle man's courage. Then there was the small New Testament that belonged to Len a childhood friend of my mother's who died from TB as a teenager - between them they had marked up all their favourite verses, mostly in St John's Gospel. Despite losing Len my mother's faith in God never wavered, and indeed she met my father at the local Baptist Church! Many items not only had sentimental value, but taught me a lot about the people who had owned them, and I will take the memories of those now dead with me into the future.

Jesus taught his disciples not to hang onto possessions, for they would not last. He knew that when we were too concerned with the things of this world it would take our minds away from the real treasure - that is from God's Kingdom of Love.

Heavenly Father,
stop us from seeing our possessions as treasure.
May we learn to sit light to what we own,
knowing we can never take it with us
on our final journey.
Help us to lift our eyes from
the things of this world,
to gaze on things eternal.
Amen.