Prescription eyeglasses
A wedding ring
Nose ring
Dog tags
These are four items from our family that now call the bottom of Buffalo Lake, Alberta home.
For the last 14 years, our family has headed out with special friends to go camping each year. This is a special time for us, and there isn't much, if anything, that gets in the way of these plans. Our kids have grown up at the campsite. They've fallen asleep under the stars, surrounded by the sounds of nature and a crackling campfire. When I compare our first year pictures to the recent ones, overwhelming thanks sweep me over.
Recently, my mind travelled to the lake we stay at. As I considered that some pretty important items of ours reside in the lake, I couldn't help being curious about the number of items we had lost to the lake. They are just material possessions, but my husband's wedding ring? My brand new glasses? Sure, perhaps a fish required some fresh vision, but I'm pretty certain that fish don't wear rings.
Matthew 6:19–21 tells us, "Don't store up treasures here on earth, where moths eat them and rust destroys them, and where thieves break in and steal. Store your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal. Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be."
When all is said and done, and our time on earth is through, we can't take any possessions with us right? The sum total of every possession will eventually be eaten up by moths and destroyed by rust or stolen by thieves. These items really mean nothing. We do require certain possessions to live; however our hearts should really be focused on the things that really matter-on the things of the Creator of the heavens and earth. On the Lord Jesus.
Sure, I was disappointed that Todd's wedding ring was gone and I needed to replace my brand new glasses, but it was okay. It wasn't worth losing my peace and becoming consumed over.
1 Corinthians 3:12–13 says, "Anyone who builds on that foundation may use a variety of materials-gold, silver, jewels, wood, hay, or straw. But on the judgment day, fire will reveal what kind of work each builder has done. The fire will show if a person's work has any value."
Indian Life Ministries recently spent some time in a reserve in Alberta. While we were there, I had a conversation with a woman who had recently lost the father of her children to an opioid overdose. Through our conversation, I noticed that whenever she spoke of her loss, she always called the man "the father of my children." She wasn't able to name what he was in her life.
I asked her about it, and she told me they had been fighting before he overdosed. This lack of naming him contributed to her inability to grieve fully and find healing. We talked for a while and she came to see that he was her best friend. And just because they had been fighting hadn't changed this. Before she left, she acknowledged that not only had she lost the father of her children, she had lost her best friend. We had a real long hug, cried and our conversation was over.
This interaction is of far more value than any wedding ring or prescription glasses. And I have a feeling, that unlike those two items, our conversation will reveal a far better value of judgment day when tested by fire.
-Krystal Wawryzniak and her husband, Todd, serve the Lord by serving as Indian Life Ministries' director team.
