Weekly Devotion April 26, 2024
Collections
For our Prime Timers Senior Adult Ministry lunch yesterday, I dragged out some of my model railroading collection. Yes, I’m a train collector of HO, O, and G scale models. Displaying my collection was difficult because I couldn’t unpack dozens of boxes and show off everything I have. I found it hard to pick just a few things that represent the entire collection. It’s like choosing your favorite child! I couldn’t do it! Somehow, I managed to control myself and filled a show-and-tell table with a few locomotives, some rolling stock, and maps and pictures of full-sized trains. It was fun playing show-and-tell with the Prime Timers.
I’ve spent many hours in my life modeling trains and playing with them. Jesus said, “unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter into the kingdom of heaven.” (Matt. 18:3) Seems like Jesus is on the side of adults who like to be childlike from time to time. My wife seems to agree as she approved my renovating an attic storage room into a train room. I can’t wait to have an open house for church members to come play trains with me.
Many people have an instinct to collect things. What do you collect—toys, dollhouses, dishes, or porcelain figurines? Maybe you thought if you collected stamps, coins, or beanie babies you were “investing” in stuff that would make a big payoff in the future. Many a collector has been down the road of thinking their stuff was worth more than it really is.
The old joke is true, “Do you know how to make a million dollars with a collection of _________? . . . . Start with two million dollars.
Occasionally there will be an anecdotal story about some art or toy collection that fetches a high price at auction. These stories are the exception to the rule. Collections are only worth something to the collector. No one else cares very much.
The instinct to collect things might be one of those things God planted in us. If we are made in the image of God, then at some level God must be a collector. God is not into trains, planes, automobiles or beanie babies, Hummels, or dishes. God is very interested in us, his children. I think God collects all the memories of you he can. God celebrates our successes and roots for us to do better when we fail. At the end of our lives, God, the Great Collector, gathers us up into his presence for eternity. The collection of his children in heaven is diverse and astonishing. I imagine we are all the favorites when show-and-tell time comes.
Collections are only worth something to the collector, and you are infinitely valuable to him.
Peace,
