Does Stuff Matter? The Woman in the Trash Can

Many people loved her. Children, grandchildren and good friends surrounded her. She loved God, her husband, and her family.

The other day, I tossed her life into the trash and recycle bins.  Greeting cards lovingly preserved, letters, numerous cards, journal entries, and pile after pile of precious photographs of her dear ones.  

Fate and circumstance reduced her long and prolific life to a pile of rubble.  Apparently no one in her family rescued these things.   I was told to get her things ready to sell but to discard the personal stuff. My heart broke for her but I could not go around crying because I threw out a picture. 

Her estate included many wonderful things including books, dishes, household goods, and a myriad of other items.   We gladly  accepted them, knowing they would be put to good use.  We were grateful that the family donated the items.

It set me to thinking of things, of stuff.  How much does it matter?  Is it important?  We all have it.  We spend our lives collecting it and stubbornly hang on to it because it belongs to us.  The Bible tells us that things are not that important.

“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 6:20-21 KJV

I know this great lady built up treasures in heaven and that is where she hid her heart.  The well used Bibles, the cards declaring love, the hymnals, church papers, and notes from friends tell me so.                         

 

Yes, it made me incredibly sad to go through her things and discard them.  However, I am happy to know that this stuff represented her well-lived life.  Also, it gave me joy to know that she built her treasures in heaven and is now enjoying her reward.  I am glad to know her through a brief look into her life. 

Stuff does matter because we need it in our daily lives.  However, it is temporary and will crumble to dust one day.  Heavenly stuff lasts forever and brings much more satisfaction and happiness. 

 Photos from Wikimedia Commons

Open Bible from Public-domain-image.com 

Touch an Invisible Child

Everyone loves children.  Babies with wide grins and googly noises delight everyone.  Little girls exert their feminine charm all around them.  Excited little boys full of hope with pockets full of rare treasures instill confidence that there will be a future for mankind.   Families love these kids and God loves them too.

Not all children are that fortunate.  Invisible children live around the world.  Maybe you never saw them, but their tears of quiet desperation are real.

Around the world

Homeless children live in many places in America, victims of the economy or their parents’ choices.  Children of migrant workers follow the crops with their families, traveling from place to place to keep up with the growing season.  

They also include the child widows of India and Nepal, and orphan children in China. Children are afflicted with leprosy or AIDS, caught in cruel civil wars, tote guns in an army, or slowly starve.  You see their skeletal bodies and haunted eyes on telethons for child help organizations.  Some step on mines and lose limbs, so many suffering children that no one sees.  Many die before their time, unseen.

China

Children orphaned in China are considered non-persons and are invisible.  No one sees them or adopts them because they are not there.  Often raised in institutions, they are attended by insufficient staff, which leads to neglect.  Many starve for human touch and stimulation.  Some come to live as orphans and grow up and die in the institution.

The lucky ones come to the attention of foreigners who adopt them and give them a much better life.  Most do not and live desperate, wasted lives, never attending school, never learning any skills, and never daring to hope.

India

According to several Internet sources, widows in India have three choices.  They can marry their husband’s brother or live lives in social isolation and denial.  The third choice is now illegal but still happens rarely.  They can throw themselves on their husband’s funeral pyre.  These girls/women are often honored as saints.

Some child widows are as young as five, trapped in marriages arranged by the families. They face a bleak future.

What can we do?

   Everything we do makes a difference.  Cuddling a child or rocking a baby in a hospital helps to meet his need for touch, basic to survival. Praying for a child changes his life because prayer makes things happen.  

Touching a life, one life at a time, helps fulfill   the Bible’s commandment to love one another.   

Other ways

• Sponsor a child through one of the organizations trying to save these little ones.  

• Volunteer to help out in orphan homes overseas.

• Let Big Brothers and Sisters pair you up with a child for mentoring and fun on a weekly basis.   

• Friend a child near you, perhaps that of a relative or neighbor.

• Schools often need volunteer tutors. 

• Foster parents care for children abused, neglected, or abandoned by the parents. 

• Consider adopting an “unadoptable child.”  They still need loving homes. 

Jesus loves the invisible children of the world. Will you touch the life of one today?  How about tomorrow?  A child is waiting.

Photos from Wikipedia Commons
First baby-Taxiarchos228
Street children of Kolkata
Woman with baby-Myles Grant

God's Promises and Our Pets

God loves animals.  The Book of Genesis tells us that He made animals before He made man in the Garden of Eden.  He always expected us to have a relationship with these creatures.  He even asked Adam what he would name each kind. 

  We often entertain feelings of loneliness and despair.  Life is tough but I believe that  God gave us our pets as part of His plans to comfort and console us.

We often entertain feelings of loneliness and despair.  Life is tough but God gave us our pets as part of His plans to comfort and console us.  We turn to our pets to help us feel better.  We can tell our dog our secrets and she would never tell another living being.

We cry into our cat's fur and he will never laugh about it with his friends or the cats down the street. Yes, our animals love us.  Whether a kitten, dog, rabbit, or bird, they return our kindness with devotion.

 

Consider how much more God loves us.  Our dog may lick our faces   

 

or sit beside us when we are sad.  They are here only in the present and will pass on in a few short years.  God has greater promises for us and they are forever.

 

 And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. Rev 21:4 KJV

He also promised that He will never leave you, nor forsake you.  Hebrews 13.5 KJV   

What comfort we find in God's Word which is eternal and never changes. We only need to open the Bible or go online to find many of God's promises to us.  Do it today.

Photos  Annie and Annie's babies-copyright J. Schlicker 2003

The Greatest of These

A three-year-old girl danced to the music in church last Sunday.  She ran to the front, leaping, pirouetting, and hopping with unrestrained joy. She twirled and threw her little arms into the air, not stopping until the music was done.  

That little child cared little if someone would see her, make fun of her, or berate her.  She, with the dancing feet, was a joy to behold and put a smile on everyone’s face.  

I think God wants us to be like that little child. It tells us so in His Word.

“And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them, And said, Verily I say unto you, except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”  Matthew 18:2-4 (KJV)

When I think of the kingdom of heaven, I will always remember that little one who danced into my heart in those few moments on a Sunday morning. 

Jesus loved the little children. 

In Mark chapter 10 of the Bible we learn that, “they brought young children to him, that he should touch them: and his disciples rebuked those that brought them. But when Jesus saw it, he was much displeased, and said unto them, Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God. Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein.”  Mark 10:13-15 (KJV)

In our sophisticated and educated society, people wonder why they should come as a little child.  I once heard it said that the Gospel is so simple that it confounds the wise.  God wants us to grasp his truths with the simple faith of a little child.

Will you come as a little child and inherit the Kingdom of Heaven?

Photos from Wikipedia Commons 

Small girl by Heather Katsoulis 

Small girl with cherries by John Russell