For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be.

Today a large moving truck came and packed up the contents of my son's life. At 26 and single, he was accepted into the Air Force as a JAG officer, and such privilege allows for his belongings to be professionally packed up and moved to his next assignment. After living in several apartments over the years, he has managed to whittle down his belongings into 13 boxes and a few odds and ends. It took less than two hours for the two men to carefully pack it all up and load it on their truck.

As I watched them pack and load everything, I couldn't help reflect on how long it might take them to pack up all of my belongings. After 50 years on this planet, I have certainly accumulated more than 13 boxes and a few odds and ends. There are some things I've been toting around since I was a young girl living at home with my parents. Why? What possesses me to carry this "junk" into each new home my family and I move into? Why am I so unwilling to part with it?

I can't help but think of the words from Matthew 6:19-21 that says, "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and decay destroy, and thieves break in and steal. But store up treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor decay destroys, nor thieves break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be." What can we learn from these words?

A few years back, a good friend of mine returned to her three children things that she had lovingly packed away for years; old report cards, pictures they had drawn, stories they had written, all carefully "stored treasures" to be delivered at the right time when they would be cherished and appreciated by her now grown children. When she returned home a few hours later after making a grocery store run, she discovered a large bonfire to which the contents of her stored treasures were being slowly incinerated. It appeared that her idea of treasure did not match those of her children.

I learned quite a lesson from this. The old dolls, toys, books and coins that were precious to me, were really only valuable to those on eBay that have the same interest. So I'm making a few bucks and getting rid of some old junk (treasures). It's true...one man (woman's) trash is another ones treasure.