There Your Heart Will Be

"For where your Treasure is, there your Heart will be also." 

(Matthew 6:21)

Gold Cross

LOVE is a wonderful gift from God, but love wracked by sin is also bitterly cruel. While love is eternal like God meant it to be, you and I are not eternal. At least not yet, and neither are the people we love. What's more, ours is an imperfect love, riddled with impatience, jealousy, and misunderstanding no matter how hard we try. How very, very cruel. Perfect love would be wonderful, wouldn't it? Maybe in a perfect world. But what could possibly hurt more than feeling perfect love for such imperfect creatures as us? What could hurt more than being hated to the point of murder by those you love enough to die for? Than hearing those same voices who just days earlier were calling to you, “Hosanna! Save us now!” now shouting, “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!” If there is anyone who knows what it's like to have a broken heart, it's Jesus. Our Treasure.

Sometimes we forget that our hearts were already broken by that very first sin in Eden. The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, the sharp knives of short lives or whatever else poets dub tragedy throughout the ages, well, it's all par for our course. Sometimes we forget that our real Treasure is secure no matter what happens between now and then, because our Treasure endured that horribly broken heart both for us and because of us.

So, we are welcome to seek the Holy Spirit to bind our hearts that have been broken by loved ones being temporarily separated from us: in church, in the Word, in prayer, and in the promise of God through Christ because where your Treasure is, there your heart will be also. Don't lay up any treasures here: not cash or fancy cars, not health or work, and not each other either. Meaning: don't love like we'll see each other every day for the rest of our lives, because we've got a long break from each other coming, and I'm going to miss you like crazy. So, sorry for all the misunderstandings and whatnot.

Your heart―your loved one―is with your Treasure. Rejoice along with the tears.

Suggested verse to repeat if it's a difficult day is Matthew 6:21

PRC buddies, remember to breathe!

"For where your treasure is, -------> 5 count inhale

there your heart will be also." -------> 5 count exhale

**NOTE: Matthew 6:21 was the Bible verse engraved on Albus Dumbledore's sister's gravestone. The verse carved on Harry Potter's parents' tomb is 1 Corinthians 15:26, "The last enemy to be destroyed is death." Neat.