Where Your Treasure Is...

Have you ever been through a Beth Moore Bible Study? I've done several of hers, and I'm here to tell you that this one is quite possibly my most favorite ever. It's been several years since I went through it, but it made such an impact in my life that I've never forgotten it.


The study goes through a very detailed look at the life of Jesus when He walked this earth 2,000 years ago. When we got to the part about His birth, God used Beth's incomparable ability to take us inside the minds of the people involved.


Particularly Mary.


Beth speculates Mary's thought processes as best we can understand them from clues in Scripture. We get a glimpse of her thoughts while the angel appears to her and later to Joseph, during the time of her visit with Elizabeth, and her cousin's full understanding of Who was conceived in Mary. She contemplates the close call of the actual birth, and the sudden provision that was made for them so she could deliver the Messiah. After the birth, Scripture tells us that she heard the shepherds and their proclamation, and then she "treasured up these things and pondered them in her heart." Luke 2:19


The summer before I went through this study, I taught Vacation Bible School to a roomful of active kindergartners. On the Wednesday night of that week, we had Parent's Night, which was a performance night the kids did for the parents. Each of the preschool classes sang a song before the big children's choir gave their presentation.


Maybe I was just a lousy music teacher, but there was no way those kindergartners were going to learn a whole song in three days with all the other activity going on...and then perform it for a large group of strangers. No singing, no way.


So I just taught them some hand motions to the song that they could follow, and for each of the parts of the song, I had props that several kids could hold up at their appointed times. It was pretty simple, they caught on, and it was an overall success. One of the props I made was this treasure chest.




It was turning out to be so pretty that while I was making it, I prayed and asked God to help me find good use for it after the presentation.


As He always is, He was listening to His simple child's simple request.


Later in the fall, while digging deep into Luke Chapter 2 with Beth Moore, the Lord gave me an idea to use that sweet treasure chest.


In the study, Beth gave us a more clear understanding of Luke 2:19 than I had ever had before. The word for "treasured up" means "to preserve, as by holding close." Think of holding very close to your heart something or someone dear to you. Then the word for "pondered" means "to throw or put together." The picture here is that of a puzzle. She took this person's testimony, and that testimony, and this person's input and that, and then put them all together so as to see a bigger picture.


Here's where the idea for the treasure chest comes in: I took that sweet box I decorated, and put a pad of paper in it. Every time God does something that is remarkable, when I am faithful to remember to do it, I write it down with a date on a piece of that paper.


I have taped a piece of paper to the inside of the lid that has the Scripture and the definition of the two phrases that struck such a chord in me. That way, if something were to happen to me (as it surely will one day), my family will remember what it was for.


As part of the Legacy, when my boys are all grown, we can sit together and look at all the marvels that God did over the years that our feeble minds are unfaithful to recall.


In this box, I am treasuring up God's goodness and evidence in our lives so that one day, we may all ponder them in our hearts together. We will relive each one, but at the same time be able to piece each one together and see the much bigger picture that God is so much more active in our lives than we think sometimes.


I am so humbled by that thought.