Big Treasure

“Don’t store up treasures here on earth where they can erode away or may be stolen. Store them in heaven where they will never lose their value and are safe from thieves. If your profits are in heaven, your heart will be there too." (Matthew 6:19-21 TLB)
Someone once said our stumbles could be our greatest treasures. I pondered on that thought for just a while and began to really think about the times I have stumbled (and I don't have to think very far back to begin this journey!). What "treasures" came out of those moments? Sometimes it was the knowledge another stood right there with me, willing to go that extra length to see me "make right" what I was obviously making a pretty big mess of in the first place. At others, it was simply the knowledge I wasn't alone in the stumbling - others were tripping up on the exact same things! Yet, some of the greatest treasure I brought out of those times of stumbling were the ones that revealed just how much God's hand had been on me despite my choosing to take a path which would lead to my stumbling!
There are those who believe any path taken toward sin or compromise is really a path without God. The truth is that if we have said 'yes' to Jesus, it is impossible to travel that 'wrong path' without him right there alone with us. He is just not the one choosing the path at the moment - it doesn't mean he is any "less with us" as we go down it. As a young girl, I remember asking my dad about a pin he kept attached to the visor in the car. It went with us from one car to the next as the family traded in one to get another. It was the head and shoulders of a brass angel about two inches long, with her wings outstretched. In response, dad simply said she was there to protect us, that is until we exceeded the speed limit! At that point, she flew out the window! I never saw her 'fly', even when someone was clearly over the posted limit!
There are times we treat God as though he would "fly out the window" of our souls each time we speed down that pathway to compromise. In truth, he is holding onto us so tightly we don't collide with all those obstacles in our path as quickly as we might do should we be totally on our own! We don't realize he is still there, just like the 'angel pin' was still there on the visor. God isn't an 'abandoning' type - it is contrary to his perfect love to only 'be with us' when we are good and then leave us when we are not behaving so well! The greatest treasures have come in recognizing all the ways he didn't abandon me along that path - and how he helped me find my way back to the right one each and every time! Just sayin!

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