A Little Boy's Insight

The last two nights, I've attended funeral services for my very best friend's mother. RJ and I have been friends since we were five years old and I have always considered her mom like a second mom to me.

RJ's 4 year old son is having a hard time processing all of this. He dearly loved his grandma and she dearly loved him as she did all of her grandchildren and great grandchildren. Looking at her in the casket, he didn't quite understand who that was. It sort of looked like grandma and everyone told him it was her but to him, there was clearly something missing and he determined that with everyone telling him that grandma was in heaven that this was obviously "fake" grandma.

The next day, still trying to process it all, he told his mom that "God took "real" grandma to heaven and she's feeling better now and He left fake grandma here in the "treasure crib". To him, the casket looks like a giant treasure box but since it has a pillow and it's cushy inside with sides that are high, it also looks like a crib - a treasure crib.

A treasure crib... In that casket truly was a treasure. I looked at Mrs. B's hands and saw hands that had prepared some of the best lasagnas a person would ever eat, played endless card games, sewed everything from dresses to costumes and everything in between. From those lips had come a clearly distinguishable voice, one that makes me smile just thinking of it and one that is carried on very similarly in at least one of her grandchildren. And that now still heart, until just a few short days ago, overflowed with love for her family and friends. But there is something very empty about that treasure now in that 'treasure crib' and that sweet little 4-year old boy knew it. He knows that his "real" grandma, the real treasure, is in Heaven with Jesus.

Matthew 6:20 says "Store up for yourselves treasures in Heaven where moth and rust do not decay and where thieves do not break in and steal."

In this world, relationships can fail, loved ones die and jobs and finances are never truly secure. When it comes to what we treasure - those things we count on to carry us through the hard times and the things we look to for joy and peace, the only way to tell what's real and what's empty is to place it against the backdrop of eternity.

Jesus is the true Treasure in Heaven. The better we get to know Him, the quicker we'll become like my friend's little boy desiring nothing less than the real thing and recognizing empty treasures when we see them.

Be blessed and hug someone special today just because you can.
Melanie