Hello Friends,

I hope you all are seeing the peaks of sunshine this winter as a welcome warmth. It sure does a body good to see sun after ice, snow, and rain.

Mid-January is when we get away to the beach for our church planning retreat each year. We were delighted to show up in Seaside where the sun peaked out long enough for some great beach walks with our kids. My favorite moment, that is still resounding in my memory, happened in a sunny break in the weather. Our youngest son, Caleb, loves to collect seashells. As we walked we would point them out and he and Bethany would run and collect them.

Unaware of how much of the beach front he had gathered, I turned to realize every shell he had was broken. Yet his arms were full of them. Oh dear, how are we going to thin these without tears? Our little packrat. But then something happened that surprised me, even after 8 years of watching his tendencies.

“Hey, Caleb,” my husband called, “look at this.”

We scampered over to see a sand dollar, whole! Something we don’t often see. That’s when Caleb dropped all his treasured shells to reach for the one unbroken one. He recognized its value enough to part with what I thought we would be wielding over. How like the Kingdom of God. I’m surprised one so young was able to recognize its worth, but he did. He let go of probably 20 fragmented shells to reach for the one. My heart saw the clear analogy of letting go of what can’t satisfy in order to cling to Christ.

• Reach for Christ over the broken, emptiness of this world.
• Stretch for healing through what our Lord offers us.
• Wait for God’s presence instead of indulging our flesh in what promises to satisfy for the moment but can’t ultimately.

Kids can surprise you! That was the moment that made me ponder what’s worth

• our time
• our attention
• our ALL

May we reach for Christ above everything that glitters, and may we choose our moments well. Those special little morsels from heaven each day—a walk, a visit, a purposeful phone call. These are all connections God uses to encourage us and likely others. May we drop everything for the God moments that fill us and make us whole.

Matthew 13:44 – The Parable of the Hidden Treasure – “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid; and for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.”