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"Set your heart on the things of Heaven"
3/8/08
As
I was driving home from work, I was listening to the Christian radio and
heard a singer sing something like, "you can take away everything
but you cannot take away my belief". I thought, "We can lose
our belief through brain injury and other memory problems, but no one
can steal the Holy Spirit". When I got home my husband told me that
our uninsured car had been stolen. It had not been valuable enough to
insure, but it was a useful old thing as many places we need to go to
are not within walking distance from our home. Some buses run but not
always when they are needed. I sent an email out letting friends and church
members know and prayed that God would return it to us, but not as a burnt
out wreck. I remembered the sermon from the previous week that included
the verse about not storing up treasure on earth where thieves can break
in and steal it, and the bible verse I had read about the king building
walls to protect the city. Peter's work contract had been abruptly canceled
and now his car was taken. I wondered what God was saying to us. Was it
time to sell up and retire early or was it just a reminder to travel light
on earth? On the Saturday I decided to drive a different route into the
city. That evening I felt sad that we so often get caught up valuing everything
we chase so that we can earn money to provide well for ourselves now and
in the future and we neglect things that have eternal consequences.
Why do we choose first
the things of this world
when the Kingdom of God is so great an adventure
and life on earth is so temporal?
Why do we value moe
the things of this world
when the world to come
holds treasures beyond our dreamings?
Find the ancient path
and follow The Way
to its source
Its course
is worth more
and its end is fullness.
"Go forth and satisfy the earth
with the fullness you receive on your journey"
At church the following day, a friend told us that they had seen a car
that looked like ours on the side of the road that I had decided to travel
the day before, so we went to have a look. It was ours! I had driven right
past it the day before. It was on the road that had come into my mind
to go down for a change, but I had not seen it because of the trees in
the middle of the road. Peter said that it had also come into his mind
to travel that road the day before, but I had needed the remaining car
to go into the city. It was just around the corner from the police station
so we went on to let them know we had found it. They sent a forensic team
out to collect prints, including a shoe print from the bonnet, and DNA.
We could not drive the car away as it had been left damaged. The cost
of fixing it was more than it was worth. So we sold it as scrap. God had
answered our prayer...it was not a burnt out wreck!
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