Some Treasures are like VaporssthatvVanish

© 2022 by Tom Boynton (editing by Kathy Boynton)

“For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?  Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Mark 8:36-37)

When I was very young, I had very definite but somewhat simpler desires.  I didn’t like sleeping or  taking naps.  It seemed like a waste of time.  I didn’t like washing my hands.  That also seemed like a waste of time.  In fact, I remember saying that, when I grew up, I wanted to be a garbage collector because I never saw them washing their hands even after handling all the garbage on our block.

Young boys feel honor bound not to have anything to do with girls.  My wife tells me that, similarly, as  young girls, she and her friends considered boys to be awful.  As we matured, those values changed.

Even with my simple, often misdirected, youthful desires, I discovered that full satisfaction of those desires was unattainable.  My parents often made me wash my hands and take naps!  As time went on, I developed new desires which were, also, never fully attainable.  Even when I made great progress toward satisfying some goals, that progress often became unsatisfying as new goals made old goals seem unimportant.

I have sometimes had opportunity to visit folks on their death beds.  During conversations with them, it became clear that facing death tends to render most of the old goals unimportant.  Thoughts of eternity become paramount and replace desires for expensive homes, yachts, and other expensive toys.  Both the poor and the wealthy suddenly realize something very important.  They can’t take any of their material things with them to wherever they’re going.  Some of those, who probably face a very undesirable eternity, try to convince themselves that there is no final judgment.  Some even start persuading themselves of this while they are still healthy.  One day, I had an opportunity to speak with a Colonel about eternal matters.  He had already convinced himself that there was no afterlife.  He said, “When you’re dead you’re dead.  Total oblivion follows.”

What and where is your treasure?  As you approach life’s end, do your material treasures, here, continue to be important to you?

The Lord Jesus Christ gave some incredibly important advice on these matters.  He said:

“Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:  But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:  For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” (Matthew 6:19-21)

Has the Lord Jesus Christ, who died to pay the penalty for sin, become your eternal treasure?

 

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