The small cloth box was labeled “jewels.” Fumbling with the latch, I hesitated. Really, I shouldn’t be opening this box. I never even knew the lady. It should be one of her children or grandchildren sorting through the earthly leftovers of a life that has gone on.

My uncle was elderly. He was alone. The overwhelming task of closing down a household accumulation of over fifty years was just too much for him, so there I was – sorting through the “stuff.” How to decide what to keep, what to sell and what to trash? Then I found it. The box of Gracie’s things. He had helped her in those last few years – taken in her groceries, brought her the needed prescriptions, assisted in keeping her financial matters in order. Since she had no one else, he had “inherited” her estate and now I had discovered her treasures!

Actually, my heart beat a little faster. Perhaps it was another “Hope diamond.” Maybe it would be one of the great finds of the century! After all, haven’t we at one time or another heard and read of real treasures hidden in the “junk” of some eccentric older person? It WAS labeled “jewels.”

With a flood of emotion and anticipation, I lifted the lid. Baubles! Dull and tarnished baubles! THIS was the accumulation of a lifetime’s most treasured items? Her “jewels.” Had she glimpsed them in the shop windows and saved nickels and dimes to make the purchase? Were they worn to a company party, glittering and shining in their short-lived glory? Or perhaps on a date with prince charming who wasn’t really a prince and ended up “not so charming”? We’ll never know! Now they’re gone – sold in the estate sale.

What jewels are we gathering in our short lifetime? Sometimes the most precious jewels tug at our shirttail with sticky hands and wear chocolate-smeared faces. Do we push them aside while we pour over the catalogues of “glittering jewels” – in the form of clothing and furnishings and gadgets? Are we scrimping and saving dimes and nickels for newer cars, better homes, nicer clothing to put in our little box of “jewels”?

We will all invest our lives in something. When we have passed and others begin the journey through our treasures, what will they find? Too many times, we clamber through a hectic life, seeking an accumulation of “things” that appear so enticing and of extreme importance. Then they fade, wear out, tarnish and are put aside. Someday, someone will sort through them to decide if they’re worth keeping! Chances are very good they will end up in the “estate sale.”

Yes, of course, we must have food, shelter and clothing. But the trifles that fade with time and are discarded must never become the focal point, or the elusive “prescription for happiness” that never quite satisfies. For in that pursuit, too many times relationships are trampled beneath the scramble. Valuable time is squandered in the acquiring and our lonely children view their “stuff” with boredom. Our most valuable treasure, our children, turn their backs on us seek relationship with others who give them “time.” In the end, when it is too late to go back, we will leave only a little box of worthless “jewels.”

How much better to take life as it comes, with all the bumps and bruises, and seek to find what really matters – relationships. Relationship with God, with family and with friends. This is what counts. If we have church family who loves us, children who love us and a God who cares more than we could ever know, we are indeed most wealthy. '

Here we are in a new year. Let’s rethink where we are and where we are going. Let’s make the important things the important things so that when life is over the legacy we have left will be imbedded in the hearts and lives of people rather than in a box of baubles!'