Payoff for a Pack Rat

I know I am a pack rat.

It's a pain during moves and, in between, I take a lot of teasing about hanging on to everything but the kitchen sink.

And it doesn't help that I fell in love with scrapbooking -- which makes it even harder to throw away a scrap of memorabilia. You never know when that nametag, that little piece of paper, that ticket stub would be just the perfect accent for a scrapbook page. When I am going to have time to do all these scrapbooks in my head is still a mystery to me. But, if I get the time, I have the pictures and memorabilia.

I'll admit that I have times of doubt about the wisdom of hanging onto all these things.

Tonight is a good example.

With the gift of a snow day, I decided to unpack one of the boxes which got unloaded in my move, but not unpacked--the tedious part of getting completely settled. And as I sorted through pens and pencils and sticky note pads and bookmarks, I'll confess that I thought, "What is wrong with me? Why don't I just dump this box?" I am so glad I didn't.

For there, beneath a lot of stuff that could have been dumped with no great loss was a treasure: the New Testament that my father received when he was ordained. On the right hand side of the Bible, he has written that he was ordained a deacon "at the 10:30 a.m. Sunday morning September 22, 1040 by Bishop William T. Watkins at Hopkinsville, Kentucky -- the 100th session of the Lousiville Conference." And there, on the left hand cover of the Bible, in his distinctive handwriting, my Daddy had written: "I am, first of all, not a scientist but, first of all and last of all, a man redeemed by our Lord and living a life of unspeakable reality in Him." (Curtis).

That was the quote written by Daddy at the beginning of his ministry and, 66 years later, these words still describe him. This New Testament and Psalms is marked up on virtually every page--some underline in red pencil, some in blue, some in green, some in black. The book is obviously well used. And well-lived.

Oh, I am SO glad I didn't just take that box to the garbage! I would have thrown away a treasure and never known it. I don't remember having this testament. I don't remember when Daddy gave it to me...probably when I was working on his heritage scrapbooks.

I don't think we ought to be consumed by our things. But I think we ought to be careful about what we throw out. And we can be thankful for the things that give us a testimony to faithful living. Tonight I found a treasure.