"Treasure" | Reflection by Katharine Luce
Treasure: a precious item or group of items stored up or hoarded; something of great worth or value; to collect and store up (something of value) for future use
Luke 2:19 (ESV): But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart.
Luke 12: 33-34 (ESV): Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
As Christians, we are called to store up for ourselves treasure in heaven—eternal riches that cannot be corrupted by earthly mortality and sin. We are to set our sights upon those things which are of greatest value: to know and love God and to be in right relationship with God and God’s people. Certainly, all other worldly goods pale in comparison to that which awaits us in heaven.
As the mother of a new baby and a toddler, the fleetingness of parenthood is not lost on me. My children have grown so quickly that I can barely keep up with each new change and milestone! The urge to capture every movement, sound, step, and idea is strong, yet simultaneously is an exercise in futility. I feel such a responsibility to bear witness to these moments of significance, to treasure them up in my heart for the future—when these children will be older, wiser, and perhaps in need of some valuable insight in the form of a memory from their parents (I hope!). Yet these moments are fleeting, too numerous and changeable to contain or remember clearly.
Did Mary treasure such moments—the shepherd’s adoration of her newborn child, her young son teaching in his Father’s house, her grown son performing his first miracle—because she knew she would need to draw upon their riches later in her life? Did she know at the time what grief and pain the Savior was to suffer? Did she hoard these precious memories for her own comfort in her darkest hour? Or did she store these accounts deep in her heart so that she could bear witness to a holy truth that she possessed: to show that Christ was indeed the Messiah?
We certainly gain glimpses of heavenly treasure here on earth—in those very moments when time stands still and you strain to soak up the magnitude of wonder, beauty, and joy you behold, when your heart aches with yearning to fully capture an experience of love. Throughout this Lenten season, may we strive to store up heavenly treasure in our attentiveness to the ordinary, extraordinary moments that surround us—to treasure them such that we may draw upon them in weary times, and bear witness to Christ’s treasured sacrifice.