“Set your minds on things above,
Not earthly things.” (Colossians 3:2)
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The stuff of life –
Packed in boxes, stored for years.
Dormant in attics, dusted with time.
Encased in glass, memories sealed.
Hidden in dressers, locked inside.
Folded in pages, the family Bible.
Was the life in the “stuff?”
All the sorting, sifting, tossing
Of  things once important.
Memories piled and stacked.
Was the “stuff” the life?

We hold onto the things that bring forth memories of what we once were, what we might have been, what we are now. We hold onto the things that remind us of who we were at different stages of our lives with the people important to us at those times. We hold onto the things that take us home to our parents and siblings, to our cousins, aunts and uncles. We hold onto the things that signify special events in our lives. We hold onto the things that flood our eyes with tears, our minds with memories, our hearts with emotions. The stuff of life. Our life.

And, yet, while holding onto these things, we have an increasing awareness as we age of the temporal nature of this world. “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.” (Matthew 6:19)

Even with this understanding, as we sort and sift and toss, we still hold back and save, all the time knowing that we will take none of the “stuff” with us when this life is over. “The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.” (I John 2:17)

But the things have seemed like an integral part of us–explaining who we are, how we got here and now, what we endured, and what we sacrificed. So hard to let go. Yet, what is before us in boxes, in closets, in basements, in attics, in pictures, in videos, in flowers pressed and preserved   will never define us. “So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” (2 Corinthians 4:18)

Is our life in the “stuff” seen?
Or does it go beyond this realm
To the unseen, the eternal?
What things do we hold onto here
That can be taken with us there?
Sort and toss, sift and let go;
Leave behind the transient.
Keep faith and love enduring.

(Sharon G. Tate blog 01/29/17) teacherforjesus.com  Meditations of God’s Word