What are your treasures?

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.                                                Matthew 6:22


Truth: This earth, as bad and ugly as it can be is the only Heaven we know. Our happiest moments are on this earth. Everything we love begins on this earth. Our treasures are here. The idea of heaven is great, awesome...but we can't even grasp it because all we know of heaven is the few moments here on earth that are perfect. 




There are certain aspects of heaven that I am really looking forward to like eating lots and lots of food and not gaining a pound! Or seeing the ones I love that have gone on before me like my precious grandparents. Getting to meet our historical patriarchs, Abraham, David, Esther and Ruth. Not to mentions mansions, streets of gold and perfect weather!


When I was growing up I remember thinking how I wanted God to wait a while before He came so that I could get married and have a couple of kids. 


He did! Just for me! Just kidding. 


But seriously, if He were to come right now I wouldn't be disappointed! I got married, had a couple of kids and he would be saving me from the middle school years! 


But then again...I don't know heaven and I'm not sure if I am that great with change! It sounds perfect and it is perfect...


Truth: I have treasures on this earth. Right now...this is my heaven. And it's not perfect...in fact, there are days when it is hard and it hurts and its exhausting...but it's the closest thing to heaven that I know. That I can grasp. 


Right now...my son is upstairs sleeping in his t-ball hat. 
My baby girl, she went into her room after her bath and put on this gold beaded necklace on herself as if she knew that is exactly what you do with a gold beaded necklace. 


Heaven.


My husband has been so blessed by his job this past week. He is coming home so happy. We just booked a trip to NYC.


Heaven. 


My brother is going to get married in the next year. The girl he is marrying is a sweetheart and someone I want to be good friend with. They are fun and happy.


Heaven. 


I could go on and on. 


God has given us tastes of heaven. Small morsels. But they are so good. They out weigh the bad of this place. They are beautiful and sweet. 


I can't even imagine what heaven is going to be like. How can it be better than a frosting kiss or the smell of my kids after baths or the sweet embrace of my husband. I don't know, but somehow it is going to be so much more. 


So I will continue to treasure these  small things here on earth all the while remembering that in Heaven they will be greater. 




Prayer


Father, I have these treasure...Lord you gave them to me and I  love them so. I value them so much. I can't imagine life any other way. But you, O Lord, you have such great things waiting for us. The things that are sweet and pure and perfect here will be so in Heaven but to a degree that we can't even fathom. So Lord I wait and in the meantime, I'm gonna keep holding on to the treasures you have given me on this earth that outweigh the hard. I love you Lord. Amen.


Reflections


What do you imagine Heaven to be? Make a list of what you desire, what would be fun, what would be perfect. Now, multiply that list by infinity! 


Challenges


Do you have treasures here on earth? What makes them treasures? Make it a point to take care of your treasures in an extra special way this week. Maybe wake up and make your husband his favorite breakfast or take the kids on a special trip or spend some special time one on one with all of your treasures. 


Truths to Remember


Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart.                                                                                                        Psalms 37:4


Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share.¹⁹In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life. 


1 Timothy 6:18-20


Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. ²I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. ³And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ⁴He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away... ²²I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.²³The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. ²⁴The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. ²⁵On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there.²⁶The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it. ²⁷Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life.
                                                          Revelations 21: 1-4 & 22-27