Value

I remember going to see Hotel Rwanda with my husband some time ago. One preview opened with 4 uncertain, shy looking children, with little tags attached to their overcoats looking around as if waiting for something. Then a woman in a horse drawn wagon approached them. The eldest boy made a two word inquiry: "Mrs. McReady?" I didn't need to hear any more. I grabbed my husband's knee and leaned forward in my chair, eyes wide as dinner plates. I don't think I was even breathing. He jumped and asked "what?!"

"Narnia," was all I could get out.

I don't think I'm the only one who was so excited when this movie was announced. I've read the book series a number of times. I'm 23, fairly well read, and I still bestow the covented titled of "favorite books" on that honored series.

C.S. Lewis obviously wrote the series in the order he wrote the series. No debate there. However, some publishers have taken it upon themselves to 'correct' the order of the books, and now they've renumbered the books, trying to put them in chronological order. In my mind, this is a terrible tragedy. What's the fun of the story if none of the secrets are left to be revealed?Putting the books in 'chronological order' removes the mystery in many instances. I've never appreciated it.

I explain this merely so you understand my stance. I respect any who appreciate the chronological publications (although they'd have to stick A Horse and His Boy inbetween the second-to-last and last chapters of The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe to be truly chronological, but allow them their delusions...). But here's what really irks me: you cannot buy the correctly numbered books anymore. All modern publications are numbered chronologically. Books numbered in the order that Lewis wrote them in are unavailable today.

But I have a set, published back in the 70s, that is numbered in the order that Lewis wrote them. And given my purist feelings, they're extremely valuable to me.

My husband also had a set of correctly numbered books, just like mine. He brought them along when we got married. So now we have two. But recently his mother asked to borrow them to use with her tutoring students. Stephan concented, thinking nothing of it. But when I learned of it, my heart clenched in my chest. "You're giving them away?" I asked in horror. I couldn't bear the thought of parting with them.

So what's happening here? Kari had found her treasure - so Kari had found her heart.

Sell your possessions, and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. -Luke 12:33-34

I was so attached to those books that the very thought of parting with them struck terror into my heart. I'm not exaggerating - I reacted pretty violently. Scripture says that that shows my heart is where it shouldn't be: it's wrapped up in a moneybag that will grow old, a treasure that can be stolen or destroyed.

Where should my treasure have been?

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. --Colosians 3:1-2

Things above, things of God - things that last and have value into eternity. I can't take my books with me to heaven. When I die, all seven of them are staying here.

My friend made a very astute observation the other day. She and her husband had just bought a new car. She was recounting how, with her old car, she didn't really care if it were treated badly. But now, with her new car, she cared very much. What had happened? A car was still a car - but my friend attaches more value to the new car than the old.

My books are at least 30 years old. I have a brand new set that my parent's bought me in London, with hard covers and a beautiful box to keep them in. But they're numbered chronologically. My old set is infinitely more valuable to me than those because I attach more value to them.

Is it wrong to value things? I dont think scripture would support that - however, as we're seeing here, it would support a propotional drop in value in these earthly things in relation to things of God. What would happen if we attached less value - and subsequently less of our heart - to our possesions and our money, and more value to God's glory and sharing the Gosple? We'd probably see radical life-changes in many many people - especially those touched by someone who was willing to value another's salvation and well being above their own personal gain. What a difference it would make!

We dropped the books off at my mother-in-law's house within half an hour of that conversation - and with joy. It was hard for me to let go of those books, knowing a little child learning to read may spill a juice box on them or allow it to be ruined in the bottom of their back pack, but I did - and now there's one less cord chaining me to earthly, perishing things and keeping me from placing my whole treasure in heaven. Any chain is hard to break by definition - but it's worth it. God was kind to reveal this one to me.

So where's your treasure? Are you laying it up in heaven to be collected in full and kept for eternity - or are you overvaluing temporal things and stockpiling here on earth only to leave it all behind when you die? God doesn't want this for us, hence the warnings against attachement to earthly treasures. What chains are keeping you from putting your whole treasure in God?