Daily Jewel

by Pastor Carnell, McAlester, OK
Jan. 10, 2012

“Grocery Cart Treasures”
“…for she (wisdom) is more profitable than silver and yields better returns than gold." – Proverbs 3:14 (New International Version, emphasis mine)

In Raleigh, North Carolina there lived a woman that the people affectionately referred to as the “Cart Woman.” Every day she would walk up and down the streets of the city with an old grocery cart, rummaging through trash bins for “treasures.” If a wheel on her cart would break or if it were stolen as a prank by some of the local teenagers she would go to one of the grocery stores and barter for another.
The clothes she wore were ragged and old – often thread-barren. The house she lived in had all the appearances of a disaster ready to happen. She had little to no contact with anyone and no one knew if she had any living relatives.
No one had seen her for several days and one of her neighbors called the local authorities to see if she was ill or hurt. When the police arrived they found her on the floor of her bedroom. The coroner believed that she had been dead for approximately two days and simply died of natural causes. Her death was a tragedy in itself – given the fact that she died alone and that no one had bothered to check in on her. But it is what the police discovered going through her house that is the greatest mystery of all. As they went through her possessions they found several pillowcases filled with cash. At least twenty! By the time they finished counting the money it was estimated that she had over 500,000 thousand dollars! We hoard things thinking that someday they will yield a great reward! We fill bank accounts, safety deposit boxes or other containers with what we consider to be “precious,” when we could be gathering and collecting the only thing that can never be lost or taken – a relationship with the King.
There is nothing wrong with having bank accounts or things – but if that is all we have at the end of this life – what have we gained? Solomon tells us to seek the greatest treasure and cherish it for the rewards of a relationship with God are worth more than anything we gather here on earth. Some years ago I came across a “testimonial” that really placed this entire thought into perspective.
A small boy, walking down the street one bright summer day, spotted a copper penny glistening at his feet. He picked it up and clutched it protectively. He felt a glow of pride and excitement. Here was something that was his and it cost him nothing! From that day on, wherever he went, he walked with his head down, eyes surveying the ground for more treasure. During the next 20 years he found 302 pennies, 24 nickels, 41 dimes, 8 quarters, 3 half dollars, and one worn out dollar bill for a total of...$12.82. The money he had accumulated had cost him nothing---except that he missed the beauty of several thousand sunsets...the colorful splendor of hundreds of rainbows...the brilliance of hundreds of maple leaves that had turned during the coolness of autumn....and most of all, the warmth of the smiles of the faces that had passed him day after day. "I know now," the author of this article states, "that life's real treasures can never be measured with a dollar sign. I just wish I had not spent so many years with my head down!"
The moral of the story…keep your head up and your heart available to all God has to offer. It is better than pushing a shopping cart around all day.
Pastor J. T. Carnell