Earthly Treasures

Once treasured dishes broken during a move.

Moving from the United States to Germany, I intentionally considered the things I brought with me. I prioritized traveling lightly, knowing that I could move frequently and that housing in Berlin is smaller than housing in the USA. My family lived in the same house for 19 years before I moved, so when I began packing up my things, I realized just how much stuff I accumulated over the years.

I spent weeks sorting through my own stuff and helping my family sort through almost two decades worth of possessions and memories. There were things we found that we didn’t even remember we had. There were things that probably hadn’t been touched since we moved them in 19 years before.

‘zu verschenken ‘ or ‘to give away’ unwanted stuff placed on Berlin sidewalks free for taking.

I remember taking multiple donations of clothing, furniture, or household items we no longer needed. We had so much excess that we became numb to it over those years as it slowly grew. Sure, we donated it in the end, but perhaps we should have taken inventory of our possessions more frequently. I knew that many things in my room stayed there for years unused just because sorting it out was not a priority.

Jesus’ words on possessions in Luke 12 challenged me since making this move. I think more about my possessions and my relationship to stuff. As the saying goes, “do you own your stuff, or does your stuff own you?” Living in an apartment in Berlin means that I possess less stuff than when I lived in a house in Alabama. But even with less stuff, our possessions potentially still own us!

Thinking about what I need and don’t need still matters; what I find my worth in, and expressing generosity with what I own. Jesus desires that we share our “treasures” with people in need (Luke 12:33). He wants generosity from us, not only because our generosity helps others but also because our generosity changes our hearts. When we hold our treasures or our possessions too tightly, we become inwardly focused and easily forget about the world around us.

As we discussed at Explore the Bible last night, our possessions include more than physical, material things like money or clothes. Our possessions also include things like our time or our skills. Being generous with our time in order to invest in people and relationships is another way of storing up treasure in heaven.

Discussion groups at our Explore The Bible event last night.

Practicing the teaching of Jesus in Luke 12 might look like cleaning out your apartment and giving away the things you don’t need to someone who does. It might look like giving money to organizations that help those in need. It might also look like inviting someone into your home to share a meal together around your table.

Jesus ends this teaching with the famous words, “wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be” (Luke 12:34). What a thought-provoking ending for this teaching! What are your treasures? And how does that show the desires of your heart?

God, help us be generous people whose eyes are focused on you and who see the world around us with your eyes.