As we remember September 11th, that horrible day, we may also recall the days that followed in which many of us vowed to make every moment count, to spend more time with family, to realign our goals and ambitions, and for some of us, lay up treasures in heaven.

But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. Matthew 6:20 NIV

For a long time I tried to follow that command because of the negative sides — what I would not be able to hang on to. While we were missionaries in Honduras I learned that lesson well. With so much poverty we had an abundance of thieves, as well as little creatures called wood lice which ate into any boxes I had stored. And in the humid environment (no A/C, sometimes not even electricity for a fan) everything was subject to mold or rust. The wonderful washing machine we brought down rusted and the outside fell off.

We didn’t have a permanent home, so a small living room rug, family pictures, and my guitar were our only necessary possessions. We learned to live lean.

It was only a year or two after moving back to the U.S. that stuff began to grow in our home. I worried that I was putting the emphasis on the wrong place again. — the negative side of that command.

I’m beginning to look at the other side now — the treasures in heaven. Perhaps it’s because my hourglass has considerably more sand in the bottom half than the top. Maybe it’s because more and more people I love have died.

Studying the book of Revelation in a Beth Moore Bible Study has influenced my thinking the most. For the first time I sense of how absolutely fantastic heaven will be, that everything we enjoy or delight in here is only a tiny glimpse of what heaven will be like. Every natural desire we have is planted within us by our Creator so that we yearn for heaven, so nothing here could ever completely fulfill us. In this life we only have a taste, and are never completely satisfied. We won’t be, until we join the company of heaven. God truly has written eternity on our hearts, and all of creation calls out to us.

Have you ever stood outside on a starry night and felt a strange longing, or on the shore, watching waves roll in and feeling something so much bigger than yourself?

Or paused on a snowy pathway to enjoy the quiet and an occasional crow in the distance, only to feel in awe of something so much bigger than yourself, than the woods, or even our world?