Storage Error (09/01/2024)

Last evening, as I settled into my chair to watch the new Hallmark movie for the week with my husband, I detected movement out of the corner of my eye. I looked away from the screen to see what it was. I realized immediately that it was a squirrel’s shadow; a squirrel was climbing up the porch screens. I got up and walked over to see why. The squirrel was trying to store his precious walnut at the crook of my downspout. I rushed outside. I walked to the screen and loudly asked, “What do you think you’re doing.” The squirrel wedged his huge, green nut between the crook of the downspout and the porch structure and lunged to the ground. He looked at me. I scolded him, “Huge mistake, buster!”

At the next commercial, my husband and I went outside with a broom and dislodged the nut from the squirrel’s stash place. Then my husband threw the nut as far as he could away from our home. And we returned to our movie. But that darn squirrel resurfaced in my daily reflection later in the evening. As I thought about him, his error in storage, the question arose about my own “storage.” What am I storing up? What am I going to great lengths to store up?

And suddenly, the words of Francis of Assisi, one of my favorite saints, rang out in my head and immediately informed my heart. “Remember when you leave this earth, you can take with you nothing that you have received – only what you have given: a full heart, enriched by honest service, love, sacrifice and courage.” 

And I knew to my core that the LORD had taught me a lesson again providentially using the world around me. I admitted to the LORD that I knew I couldn’t take anything in my home with me when my journey here ends. All I will have is my life’s record. As I stand before the LORD, it won’t be what I amassed that will make a difference, it will be only what I gave.

I recalled a poem I wrote as a teen that ended with “all that is left is the shell, broken open and shared.” I sat with the LORD for some time last night considering my life and how I’ve spent it to date. I admitted my own “storage errors” to the LORD, sought forgiveness for time and opportunities wasted, and asked for the gift of better vision from the Spirit.

As we journey forward to life in abundance in our LORD, as we make our way home, let us be focused not on what we have but on what we are called to give in the moment. May our journeys be marked by loving relationships and loving kindness spent graciously.

Until tomorrow, let us all love well.