Saturday, September 10, 2011

Treasures



It's amazing the things you can find while packing up your house to move somewhere else.  I have always been quite the pack rat.  I keep all sorts of cards, letters, and mementos, most of it all silly stuff in other's eyes, I'm sure.  While going through my many boxes and hiding spots for my life's collection of memories, I found things that made me smile, made me cry, made me laugh, made me furrow my brow in confusion as to why in the world I kept that... all sorts of emotions and faces.  I relived my short 31 years in a span of two hours while going through memories heaped in piles of papers and objects, envelopes and packages.  And while sneezing intermittently through the stirring dust, I realized my treasures in life were in front of me. 

I found a toy that had been given to me by my now desceased grandfather, whom I do not remember, as he died when I was just a baby.  I found pictures of school friends, birthday cards, my very first CD's (yeah, those things came out during my childhood... I feel old), deflated balloons, journals from just about every stage in my life, my favorite books that are now falling apart due to being read over and over... so many things.  I found precious things that are irreplaceable, such as letters and poems from my Dad.  Even found a few songs I had "written", lol.  And all this stuff was way before my dating, marriage, and baby years... I filled a plastic bin with stuff from Delbert, all the letters, cards, poems, and pictures from our dating and early marriage. And it took a huge plastic bin filled to the top to hold all my favorite baby things from my three beautiful girls, such as their hospital receiving blankets, going home outfits, baby books, and pictures.... oh my, the pictures.

The whole process made me realize that my treasures are not of any monetary value to others, but are priceless to me, because they are my memories.  It all represented friends and family, people who mean the world to me.  Scribbled coloring pages given to me by children I used to babysit who are now babysitting for me, silly home videos, (even found an old college speech video of Delbert, ha!), these things are what I treasure.  Not because of the things themselves, but because of what they represent.  A picture of my very first ultrasound as I laid eyes on Rachel for the first time reminded me of that entire first pregnancy.  A crushed paper cup I kept reminded me of the day my grandmother held it in one hand while I held the other as the doctor looked across the desk and told her she had cancer, which also reminded me of the day I held that same hand and told her I loved her when she took her last breath.

What's that verse?  "For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."  (Matthew 6:21)            

3 comments:

  1. And Luke 6:45 tells us that we speak from the abundance of our hearts. Thank you for sharing your riches with everyone.

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  2. So packing up to move has another good side....you get to relive your memories!

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  3. Jennifer,

    Do you remember helping mom unpack and finding a box labled "special cups" when we moved to Oxford?
    They weren't china, chrystal, or anything else that other people would consider special. Instead, they were mugs and cups that she'd received as gifts over the years.

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