My Treasure's In Heaven

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. - Matthew 6:19-21

Madeline and I went to Community Bible Study this morning, as we always do on Wednesday morning. We rushed home as usual because she is hungry for lunch and ready for a nap. All the way home she was signing, “More, more, more” in the back seat, meaning, “Feed me!” As I pulled into the driveway, my mind was occupied with thoughts of what I was going to feed her for lunch and how I should spend the precious hours of her nap time. I pulled the emergency brake, turned off the car, and looked up at the back door. “Did white flower petals fall from a tree and cover the back sidewalk?”, I wondered. “No wait…..That’s….Glass……And the door is open!....The house has been broken into!”

As quickly as I could, I threw the car into reverse and fled the scene. I called Daniel to tell him what had happened, pulled into our church parking lot (just a mile away) and called the police from there. I kept praying over and over, “Thank you, Lord, that we weren’t home.”

The next hour dragged on for days. I went back to the house when the police came, Daniel arrived home, we went through the house to identify what was missing, we filed the police report…. Surprisingly only a few things are missing – a laptop, my jewelry box, and a few odds and ends. Many of our “valuables” (that I am acutely aware aren’t truly valuable) were unexplainably left behind.

Through the whirlwind of activity following the break in, three thoughts from scriptures surfaced in my jumbled up mind:

1- My treasure is safe in heaven. This stuff was not treasure, and it’s all going to burn someday anyway.
2- Pray for your enemies.
3- “Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God.” (Isaiah 41:10)

My greatest fear was FEAR initially. I don’t care about the stuff we lost but I feel concerned that I will now spend my days and my nights living in fear that our home will be broken into again while we are home. I don’t want to live my life consumed with fear. I know that it is not God’s will for me.

I brought this before God, and he led me to Psalm 121:5-8:

The Lord watches over you….He will keep you from all harm. He will watch over your life. He will watch over your coming and going, both now and forevermore.

I realize that I have a choice. I can choose to hold onto fear of bodily harm to me and my family, or I can choose to trust God to watch over me. I can choose to take him at his word that he is watching over all of my comings and goings all of the time. I know that God was in charge today, and he was protecting me and Madeline. Who knows how many times a day he protects my life, and I’m never even aware of the danger? Today I was aware, and so that makes it seem scarier. But he was “watching over my life” today just as he is every day. I will trust him to do it again tomorrow.

Anyway, there were a few pieces of jewelry that I felt sad to lose. There were a couple of items I had contemplated selling so that we could put the money in our adoption fund. I held back and now it’s gone. If I had sold them to invest the money in the kingdom of God, it would have been mine forever. Lesson learned.

I am thankful for so many things: for God’s protection, for his reminder of what really matters, for Daniel being able to rush home to be with us, that more things weren’t stolen. More than anything I am thankful for the push that this gave me to cling to HIM more.

Here is Daniel installing our new back door this afternoon



Here is the old one....



I had this sign over the back door. It was on the floor covered with broken glass. Ironically the intruder had to step over it to enter our house.