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Things Don’t Last
Well, maybe some things do – but most things don’t.
Do you recall your first childhood “treasure?” I remember mine. It was a grey stuffed Bugs Bunny about a foot long with a pull string in the back that when extended caused a little mini phonograph disc inside his chest (stamped out somewhere in Taiwan) to utter the English syllables – “Neah . . . What’s up Doc?”
I know about its inner workings because after several thousand cord pulls the day came when the little mechanical Bugs voice no longer uttered its famous one liner and surgery was clearly in order. I was never able to repair the mechanical heart that spun the little disc, but I treasured bugs for many more years until one day, less one ear, both eyes and part of a leg, he was tossed into the “Mission pile” by a teenager (me) that no longer saw any relevance in the thing.
I’d pay big dollars to get Bugs back today in any condition.
But like most of the things I have purchased or been given in life, that particular bunny is probably dust beneath the earth or high in the wind above the planet by now.
Last year I took my old Pioneer stereo amplifier to the Rescue Mission. I had owned it since I was 16 and even though it no longer worked (having almost burned the house down when it finally gave up the ghost in a cloud of smoke) I still didn’t want to toss it directly in the trash can. Maybe someone could revive it, I thought - even though the manufacturer had likely stopped making parts for it decades ago. It was sheer denial. I wanted that thing to last. Having once been a treasure that I was so proud of, it had somehow become a part of me. Or at least that’s what I thought.
I remember the day I helped clean out my Grandparents house. There were so many things left behind that were no longer useful to anyone else but clearly had once meant a lot to them. It was a great lesson in life as I departed down the driveway that evening. Things don’t last – or even manage to impart their true and best meaning to us or others over their usable lifetimes.
There is, of course, scripture that covers this topic and it is found smack dab in the middle of Christ’s “Sermon on the Mount,” which is the only real “sermon” he ever preached. He simply advises that we should not “store up for ourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal,” but to rather “store up for ourselves treasures in heaven . . . .” He then adds simply, “for wherever your treasure is, there shall your heart be also.”
This is a tough one for me because I like bright and shiny new things as much as the next guy – the enjoyment of human ingenuity and better ways of accomplishing everyday tasks make many products very desirable, and while I’d like to think that I’m past the point of ever buying anything for the sake of status or to show off to my friends and family, I’m sure those powerful base currents pull subtly and deeply somewhere in my subconscious.
But hopefully in the end, when all is said and done, all of us will have managed to “build up treasures” that honor the great giver of life – treasures that are born into eternity in the serving of others in an endless number of ways . . . The hours of volunteer time given behind the walls of a local service agency . . . The money sent to desperate people in faraway places . . . The kind word given to the socially scorned person who may not deserve it . . . The forgiveness granted at our own expense . . . And yes, maybe even the shiny new thing given in love that makes the heart of a child leap . . .
“Neah . . .What’s up Doc?”
Some things last.
- Stuart