Wealth

But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.

--Luke 2:19

The other day my 6-year-old daughter looked up at me eagerly, her large brown eyes beaming from underneath the hat she wore. She extended both arms, hands bent back to expose her wrists.

“Smell!” she ordered.

I bent over and sniffed. “Oooh, very nice. What is that?”

“Puhfyoom,” she said, her young speech still unable to get the “r” sound of “perfume.” “Weal puhfyoom!” (Real perfume!)

“Wow!” I said, trying to match her excitement. “Where’d you get that?”

“Mommy let me have some!”

She ran off to get her backpack for school. I stood in the kitchen and thought about what just happened. I was surprised to find tears coming to my eyes. I thought about how young she is. The littlest things like wearing real perfume are such major events—at least for the moment. 

I know she’ll grow up and life’s pace will quicken and she’ll move through other major events, each making previous events look smaller, and each becoming a blur of memory. Little things like wearing real perfume will give way to schoolwork and sports and performances and failures and dating and driving and dances and heartbreak and graduations and all manner of things I just don’t want to think about. 

So I stood there in the kitchen—needing to get her to first grade and myself to work. I stood there and I treasured up all these things and pondered them in my heart.

We slurp so much of life 

that is meant to be savored.

We slurp so much of life that is meant to be savored. Parenting has many moments that sneak up and push us off balance, leaving us shaking our heads and wondering what just happened. There is something real about such moments, as if something alive has happened—not calculated or meant to advance us—something other that yanks us outside of ourselves.

Sometimes God’s hands grab our shoulders and he stops us. We lean in and look under the brim of a hat. We look into the big brown eyes of eternity. We are invited to celebrate a little bit of joy, to share the excitement of a moment, to smell the perfume of innocence--real perfume. We are given treasure to store up in our souls and to ponder in our hearts. Believe me when I say, this is wealth.

...Read Treasure Chest (Wealth, Part 2)...