There are certain words in the English language that make me giggle from time to time. You all know what I am talking about. Words like savings, or investments, stock portfolios, etc. These words crack me up. I mean, maybe they aren’t supposed to, but they always get me right there. It’s not because I am necessarily financially irresponsible, I just find that these are concepts that seem very foreign to me and maybe they might get some of my attention on down the road a ways. Let’s be honest, I don’t think I chose my career because of the lucrative dividends…fringe benefits perhaps, but I don’t think people get into the ministry to make money (or at least I don’t think they should). More so, to make a life. And I’m not knocking practical savings/investing/etc., but I sometimes wonder if we are always investing in the right places.

In the Sermon on the Mount there are all sorts of nuggets of practical wisdom and one of my favorites is found in the following, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” – Matthew 6:19-21. I have heard all sorts of interpretations about the ideas of treasure and heaven. I have heard people talk about crowns, jewels, mansions, etc. and I for one consider all of that talk hogwash (if you need to know what that is, consult a pig farmer). Do you think Jesus has ever for one moment defined treasure in terms of earthly monetary value?!? The very definition he gives above contradicts that completely. Anything that can be consumed by age or appetite (i.e. anything on earth you can possess) is worthless treasure. In fact, it’s not treasure at all.

So then I have to ask myself, what is the treasure in heaven? What is so priceless that God himself in the flesh would call it “treasure”? What is worth so much to God that he would give his very life to attain it? (You’re tracking with me now). Us…people…human beings…we are his treasure. And likewise we are/should be treasure to each other. And so when Jesus tells us to store up (the Greek word actually means invest in) treasure in heaven He is talking about our investment in other people, not some sort of weird heavenly possession. And so my question to us today, who are you investing in? Who are you pouring your life into? And not just your life necessarily, but the life of Christ.

You see there are all sorts of things we invest our time and resources in. It might be literal investments, maybe sports, or fashion, or entertainment; anything, but the only real investment that transcends this temporal life…others. So may you invest yourself fully in that which matters most as we store up our treasures in the hope of Heaven.