Treasures

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. Brenda and I sure did. We had an opportunity to entertain about a dozen members of her family and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. As an added bouns, there were no casualties or any property damage while the six kids were here.

Of course, one of the major events of Christmas is opening the presents. How wonderful it is to see loved ones enjoy gifts that you have put a lot of thought into and braved the hoardes at the mall to buy. It is also very nice to receive special gifts from loved ones who have done the same for you. As we tally up the loot, let's keep this scripture in mind.

Matthew 6:19-21: Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

While its great to receive that electronic gadget you wanted or the special book, dress, or decoration for the home, Jesus told us in the above scripture we need to make sure that is not where we put our focus. Possessions come and go, but it's what we do with our lives that matters to God.

It's okay for us to enjoy what we have, especially those items that are special gifts from special people in our lives. It's also okay in our Creator's eyes if we don't have the wealth of our neighbor. We are blessed with true riches when we focus our lives on Jesus and model what we do and how we spend our time after the example he set for us.

Before he started his ministry, Jesus was a hard working carpenter who would probably be thought of as no better than lower middle-class in todays socio-economic structure. Obviously, accumulating wealth was not important to his mission on earth. What he stood for and what he did for others is what set him apart. As we catch our second wind from the holiday rush, let's try to approach our lives the same way.