Treasures – we all have them… they’re what our hearts hold dear.  Treasures are often found within the important things of life – our family, friends, hobbies, and even little trinkets. Yet, what value do we give them?  Are they all encompassing, devouring our time and energy… or are they like gifts in the backdrop of a life rich and full from serving others?

One of my favorite verses from childhood has been, “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.”  (Matthew 6:20-21)  In all honesty, though, I have not always looked at life from that perspective.  But God never fails to bring something to mind which helps us remember His great and awesome treasure.

I have many treasures, things I hold dear.  One special treasure is a small collection of Delftware.  Since both my husband and I are second-generation Americans of Dutch immigrants, I want to preserve our heritage.  Though patriotic American, I also value the Dutch as my most prominent ancestry.  My dad was full Dutch, while my mom is a mixture of many German/Swiss Palatines, a few Scots-Irish, English and French, and many early-17^th century New Netherlands’ Dutch.  

Yet, as much as I treasure my family and its heritage, this is not where my greatest treasure is found.  Instead, I have learned to “seek…first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness...”  (Matthew 6:33)  Storing up treasures through the gift of Christ’s love and sacrifice leaves me to understand everything else is simply an accumulation of stuff.  I can’t take any of it with me when I pass away from this earth. 

By trusting, believing in, and accepting Jesus’ death and resurrection, we affirm His assertion to all the world that “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.”  (John 14:6)   Nor can we escape the simple truth that, as Jesus told his followers, “where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”  (Matthew 6:21, Luke 12:34)  That treasure I can take with me!  And may we always hold the greatest treasure this world has ever known close to our heart.

Heaven’s Treasures

Linda A. Roorda

 Treasures are in the heart’s secret things

The special thoughts, the riches valued

But whence the source a difference makes

For what the heart seeks, there lies its treasure.

What do I value above all the rest?

What would I give for my heart to follow?

What is the worth of a sacrifice

Among life’s stuff that draws me away?

Is it my self, an ego to fulfill,

Or is the choice of eternal value?

Do I hold tight trinkets of this world,

Or release them all for greater reward?

Within this life are choices to make

Whom shall I follow, to whom give my heart?

To that which I seek will loyalty go

Whether in pleasure or by wisdom’s light.

For what my heart seeks there is my treasure

Hidden in depths of awe-filled wonder

As I gaze upon heaven’s great glory

The shining home where faith has been placed.

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