where is your treasure?

"for where your treasure is there also will be your heart."  ~ matthew 6:21

i suppose it is the word treasure which throws us sometimes for a loop.   we think about treasure and our minds are instantly drawn to letchy pirates and pretty princesses.   we think about it in terms of buried jewels and secret castle rooms.  it is a strange word to connect with our modern day and somewhat mundane kind of  lives.  treasure.  and yet it is a beautiful word.  it describes the handmade mother's day gifts i collect in a shoe box. it describes the feeling we might get while in the middle of a good book.  it describes a precious conversation with my daughter or an unsolicited hug from my son.  it describes the stack of love letters between my grandparents throughout their 55 years of marriage.  it even describes the smelly pail of seashells collected each year on vacation.   these things of beauty are clearly are all treasures.  and all  things God would want me to value.  He would certainly want me to enjoy.    but if i treasure these items, these gifts more than i treasure the Giver of good gifts, than i am only getting a glimpse of His gold.  i am left holding only a small gem from His heavy chest of heavenly jewels.  when my senses are satiated with earthly items and temporal pleasures i miss out.  i miss out on what God really wants for me.   when i treasure the creat-ed more than the Creat-or i swiftly cross the line from adoration to idolatry.

and what about the things we shouldn't treasure?  what about the things which distract us.  detour us.  derail us?  what about the things which we would never put into the poetic category of  love letters and mother's day gifts.  i know there are things in my life i wouldn't care to admit publicly which take a lot of my time.  my energy.  my resources.   i might pretend they are not too important.  i might pretend myself to be not too attached.  i might even deny them as acquaintances,  let alone treasures.  but if i'm honest, i will admit to you i have things which i value too highly and which therefore continue to compete for my heart.

really in this matthew 6 passage Jesus wants to know one thing:  where is my heart?  the easy and appropriate sunday school answer is: securely with Jesus. but Jesus wants to be real here.  Jesus desires to get down to business with His audience and so He throws out that word treasure.  where is your treasure? seriously, where is it? what fills my thoughts, my time, my days, my dreams?   do i treasure my relationship with Him?  do i treasure His word?   do i treasure His cross?    the thing about the heart is Jesus wants all of it.    the rich young ruler attempted to persuade and impress Jesus with his ability to keep His commandments - well most of them.   but Jesus knew it wasn't about keeping most of them, it was about keeping the difficult one.  and when Jesus told him to, "sell all your possessions, give to the poor and follow me," the gig of good, rich, young ruler was up.  his true colors, his true treasure and his true heart were truly exposed.

for where your treasure is there also will be your heart.  this verse sounds more like a line of poetry than it does a method of evaluation.   but Jesus wasn't wooing us with beautiful language He was asking us to take a real, close, and very careful look at what we value.  He knew back then and He knows today we might very well have learned all the right answers, but he isn't concerned with our correct answers, He only wants for us the correct treasure and a right heart.