Rocks

When I was a child I collected many things.  I collected baseball cards, football cards, rocks, sea shells, coins, cuts, bruises, wood ticks, toads and stains on my clothing.  Some things I collected on purpose, while others were purely accidental.  I didn’t go out seeking wood ticks…but as a young boy living a life of adventure on a small imaginary farm, wood ticks came with the territory.  I am not sure that my mother appreciated most of my collections.  She could tolerate the baseball cards and football cards but only until I was married, at which time she came for a pleasant visit and dropped the large bin of cardboard photos at my feet saying, “Here you go! I’ve stored them long enough! It is your turn now!”

I had a small coin collection that I have to this day.  In fact, I have some rare pennies that might be worth up to one cent…maybe even twice that! 

When our family would go to the lake, I could often be found collecting sea shells.  Truth be told…there were just snail shells or clam shells, but I was convinced that they were valuable and worth keeping.  I often would load my hands with them to a point where I could no longer carry any more.

I also collected rocks.  As an elementary school student I had found some whitish quartzite the size of baseballs…maybe golf balls…but they seemed so big to me at the time…that I was convinced were magic crystals…with no magical powers.  On a family trip to the North Shore of Lake Superior I scooped up rock after rock, agate after agate.  I filled my pockets, my hands and my shirt with as many rocks as I could hold.  As I continued to add to my supply I found that I dropped more and more stones at an accelerated rate.  In fact the more stones I tried to collect…the less it seemed that I could actually keep in my possession.  I remember seeing an exceptionally large and attractive agate next to the gooseberry river. I have since named the agate, The Big Beautiful Agate. I carefully knelt beside the tennis ball sized stone and tried to pinch it between my elbows.  Not only was I unsuccessful, I lost more stones in the process and ended up leaving the big beautiful agate behind.  Incidentally, my mother made me leave all of the other stones on the ground before I got back into the car…empty handed I came…empty handed I left.

I consider the story of a rich young man who meets Jesus in Matthew 19:16-30.  This story reveals how this young man is holding onto so many treasures that he cannot obtain the one treasure that clearly outweighs the others.  Jesus even invites him to let go of those treasures, (“…sell everything that you have, give it to the poor and come and follow me and you will have treasure in heaven…”).  In the story, the man goes away sad, because he is unwilling to give up that which he cannot keep to obtain that which he cannot lose.

May we come to respond to Jesus’ invitation.  It is an invitation to trust him and follow him, to the point that we understand that nothing in this world can compare.