Day 2

Well, here I am on day two. I thought over night about what to share this morning. I thought about things I like and things I don't like. Sharing a little about my preferences didn't seem too risky to splatter on the world wide web.

So, here it goes, let me start with the negative, I don't like flat surfaces in my home. Any flat service that exists in my home is covered with something, particularly, unnecessary somethings that should have something else done with it, but for some reason never gets done. Flat surfaces are everywhere, kithen counters, tables, chairs, benches, floors, coffee tables, desk tops, bookshelves, everywhere I turn, if there is a flat surface, something is on it.

On the flip side, when I look at the stuff, alot of it is just stuff that found a resting place with no one to take owernership of it. But some of it, are things of value, maybe not immense value, but value none the less. I see a book that someone from church gave us to read that they thought would be a blessing to us. A token of love. I see a picture that dates back to the early 1900's of my Grandfather, his Sister and his Mother. The picture needs to be fixed and has been set their until I can get to it - but it has worth to me - looking into the faces of those to whom I am related that are no longer with us. Some of the flat surfaces are items that belonged to my Great Grandmother, a baker's table and a china cupboard, full of stuff, but the furniture themselves was once found and used in her home.

Sometimes, my life seems full of stuff. It seems kind of overwhelming at times as I try to sort things out. But if I am able, for a little while, to look at the stuff through the eyes of a different lens, even if just for a little while, I can sometimes see some real value in clutter. In those moments, I don't see the stuff so clearly as I do the little elements of the clutter that brings value to my life.

More often than not, it is something to do with a relationship. Whether an old picture of those who lived before me or a Star Trek key chain given to me by a friend who knew that I was a fan of the old TV show. I am slow to give these things up, even though most of these things will lose all their value at my departure from this life, because to me they represent a token of love in a relationship, whether family or friend, and once I am removed, that items value converts to some other estimate of worth.

My mother has a black outline of my head against a white sheet of paper. It was made when I was in Kindergarten or first grade or something like that. Now, the reality is, it is an old piece of paper, with a black, funny shaped head on it. Do you think anyone is going to find any value in that once my mother is gone? It is doubtful, and yet she treasures it! It represents a simpler time for her, a precious time to her, a gift of a child to her, and to her, it is valuable! So much so, that after 45 years she has kept it.

I read in Revelations that bread will someday be worth a bag of gold. Funny how the value of things change. It looks like, in the future time frame described in that portion of the book of Revelation, that people will be awful hungry and since you can't eat gold, the value of the bread increases over that of gold. Pretty simple concept.

I wonder why it gets so complicated seeing things of real value. Do you suppose it has something to do with the fact that we have so much? Maybe we spend too much time shuffling our stuff, trying to figure the value of these things and placing them in order. Maybe, we should spend a little more time looking at things of real value, things that last forever. Maybe we should use a different lens to see things.

Jesus mentioned this to us one time: "Don't store up treasures here on earth, where they can be eathen by moths and get rusty, and where thieves break in and steal. Store your treasures in heaven, where they will never become moth-eaten or rusty and where they will be safe from thieves. Wherever your treasure is, there your heart and thoughts will also be." Matthew 6:19-21 (NLT)