May 18 – Homeowner

Matthew 13:52

He said to them, “Therefore every teacher of the law who has become a disciple in the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old.”

Because we moved so often as a child, I didn't get to experience finding an old family trunk in the attic filled with treasures.  We saw our treasures every five or six years and moved them into a new home, but those stories always fascinated me.  When we moved into our home in Sigourney, though, Dad went up to the attic to lay floor down so we could store unused items up there and he discovered a treasure trove of National Geographic magazines.  Every once in a while we had gotten that magazine, but here were scores of them ready to be perused.

Getting into that attic was no mean feat. It required a ladder and a little bit of upper body strength to pull yourself through the square little hole.  The room was hot in the summer and filled with insulation, except the areas where Dad had placed plywood. Mom had made me promise not to bring all of those magazines downstairs; she didn't want them cluttering up the house.  Every once in a while, I’d get sent to the attic to find something and I’d get lost in the piles of magazines; reading and looking at the pictures, until mom called up looking for me and whatever item she needed.

The disciples had just spent time learning from Jesus about the kingdom of heaven. He explained it to them in multitudes of parables and hoped that they fully understood his meaning.  And now, he told them that they have been given enough to teach both the old and the new.

The treasure we have inside us after meeting and building a relationship with Jesus Christ is like this homeowner.  We have our old stories that help us relate to people and we have a new layer of stories and understanding because of this relationship.  Tell your stories, bring out the treasures and share them with others.