Whole Lives in the Front Yard

Matthew 10:29-31 - Aren’t two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them falls to the ground without your Father’s consent. But even the hairs of your head have all been counted. So don’t be afraid therefore; you are worth more than many sparrows.

In 2012 Vermont was hit hard by the effects of Hurricane Irene. Southern Vermont was devastated and many towns were forever altered. Northfield and Waterbury, both in Central Vermont, were also badly hit. At the time, I was the Director of the Green Mountain Baptist Association. In that role I was involved in a whirlwind of activity helping coordinate disaster relief efforts.

One evening I drove through a small village looking at ruined possessions strewn in font yards. Clothes, furniture, kitchen appliances, books and all manner of personal possessions were in pile after pile. A few days before, these villagers had no idea that their personal possessions would soon lie in ruins on their front lawns because of flood waters. The flood waters had ruined these items. Though they had once held great value to the owners, now they were simply waiting to be loaded into a dumpster and thrown away. At first glance, it would seem that people's whole lives were in their front yards.

But our lives are not just the accumulation of possessions. As bad as the floods were across our state, only a handful of people lost their lives. The vast majority of people only lost their belongings. While I do not mean to make light of the loss of one's possessions, I would suspect that if we interviewed any of those flood victims, they would all agree that having their family safe was far more important than having those piles of possessions back. As long as we have one another, we will have our most important possessions.

Lord, help us appreciate the people in our lives and not focus so much on our possessions. Amen.

This post is an excerpt from the book, The Heavenly Mundane: Daily Devotions from Ordinary Experiences. Filled with stories of how God spoke in big ways through small events, the book will encourage people to look for God in the mundane things of life. Great for both personal use and to give as a gift to friend, either the print version or the e-book version may be purchased at this link:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MJ2UE4E