A lesson from a damaged lock

by Jonathan S Spurlock
(Holts Summit, MO)

Matthew 6:19-20, KJV 19 Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: 20 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal

Moving from one place to another is always a challenge, no matter how many times you’ve gone through this “process”! My wife and I recently made a move and learned a strange, but interesting lesson—one that was valuable for us, too.

As sometimes happens, there is too much stuff and not enough space. Storage sheds are always an option. We even laughed about what could happen if we didn’t pay our bills or fees and saw the expressions on those who won the bid so they could open our storage bin. I mean, suppose somebody bid $2000 USD for our storage shed’s items and found an old microwave oven and a few boxes of Bible commentaries! We had more (oh, boy, did we ever!) but honestly, what would someone DO with our leftovers?

Well, we found out, and not in a way we expected. We went to the shed one afternoon to see how things had fared (!) and saw a manager’s lock on the door! The message on the lock told us to call the office, which we did, and asked what could have gone on? We hadn’t been late on the payments, and we hadn’t received any notices or nasty-grams from the management. Regardless, their lock was on our door and we couldn’t get in!

The manager came by and explained that someone had apparently broken into our shed and HAD LEFT THE DOOR OPEN! When she—the manager—received word, she put one of the management’s locks to try and keep things relatively secure.

We all looked around, and didn’t find anything valuable missing (except a plastic bag full of my favorite T-shirts) but we did find the lock! The thieves or vandals had cut the lock in two, and, incredibly, left the lock on one of the stacked boxes. If they had taken anything, we didn’t notice anything missing (as mentioned earlier), but the potential for theft was huge.

Jesus warned about this in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 6:19-20, when He said for believers to stop storing things for ourselves on this earth, as thieves could break through and steal whatever you or I or anyone else had worked so hard to obtain. Even a lock on a storage shed is not really much of a deterrent to a determined thief. We know this for certain!

Prayer: Thank You, Lord, for protecting these items and the diligence of managers to prevent a more serious problem. Please deliver me from the trap of being owned by what I own, and remind me that these possessions are only on loan from You. Remind me that I should be laying up treasure in Heaven, not on this earth, and help me be a good steward of what You gave me.