Hoarding Worthless Things

The house was filled with junk! My friend was one of the men hired to clean it out. They couldn't just throw everything away, they had to search for valuables amongst the trash. Things had been put in strange places. A ring was found in an old medicine bottle. A couple hundred dollars in a candy box.

The job took several weeks. You see, one of the owners had passed away, and the other was now in a nursing home. Their children needed to take care of the estate, but dare not venture into that house. You had to wear a mask just to go in.

The house had a few dozen cats in it. Seven were found dead. These animals had wrecked almost all of their belongings that actually had value. Besides that, their smell had soaked into everything. Only metal could be salvaged.

At one time the home owners were antique dealers. They had an eye for value. They collected some beautiful pieces. However they also began hoarding. Hoarding random things of no value to them or others.

There were lots of clothes and shoes, some never worn. Their bed was piled as high as possible with clothes. They definitely weren't sleeping in it. One of the kitchen drawers had hundreds of empty sugar packets in it. There were tons of empty ice cream cups from a fast food place, that had been washed and stacked. So some of their hoarding had been "organized", but how long can you organize trash that is taking over your life and your home?

My friend said that there were times he would have to leave the house just because of the emotional heaviness he was feeling. It was hard for him to imagine people living in these conditions. How could people who at one time collected what was valuable, and had purpose, let worthless things take over?

My friend had to ask himself...is this how God sees us?

Does He look at what we are "storing up" and grieve at the waste we find so valuable? Is our perspective skewed? Are we letting "stuff" take over? Do we let what actually has value, get ruined because we stop caring...being overwhelmed by what we have created?

"As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, thus storing  up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life." (1 Tim. 6:17-19 ESV)

I want to store up what cannot be seen. (2 Cor. 4:18)
Cannot be shaken. (Hebrews 12:27-29)
Cannot be burned. (1 Cor. 3:13)
Eternal treasures. (Matt. 2:20)