Recently, I settled back into my recliner with TV dinner and milk in hand, to watch a movie on the tube. The blurb for The Skeleton Key was innocent enough so I clicked on the appropriate channel, squirming to get comfortable and dive into my meal.
The storyline was about a young woman who, disenfranchised by a common apathy toward patients at a hospice ward, leaves to take a position as a caretaker at a private residence in the Louisiana Bayou.
The movie opens with the lead, Kate Hudson, a nurse, sitting at the bedside of a male patient reading a book to him. One minute his eyes are open. The next minute, they shut. She closes the book, puts it on the chair, then reaches down, and checks the man’s vitals. Another nurse stops at the open door.
“He’s gone,” Kate says, shaking her head.
Later, Kate leaves the building with a little brown cardboard box in her arms, a label identifying the box as belonging to the man who passed away. Near the back door sits a large top-loaded trash container. Kate lifts the lid and prepares to throw away the box, but first she looks inside the bin and notices half a dozen other boxes with a label on each one identifying its owner. Following that scene, I don’t remember anything that happened.
I sat there in my recliner thinking about the old man’s box. The sum total of this man’s life was able to fit inside of a small box. There were no family members at his side when he passed, just a nurse who cared enough to perform a simple act of kindness by reading to him as he slipped away.
I couldn’t help wondering about what keepsakes were in the box. Perhaps some pictures or a few personal letters, a cross at the end of a chain, or maybe a woman’s wedding band. Now they sat in a trash bin in an alley.
FIRE HAZARDS
Just like the trash container consumed the man’s box, so will the refiner’s fire consume all hay, grass, and straw on that Day of Judgment. Everything that is not pure will burn in that fire just as the dross rises to the top and discarded when refining Gold.
That little brown cardboard box is a metaphor for our lives and as such is a gift from God. The contents of our life, or what we do with our lives, are a gift back to Him. What will Christ find in our little brown cardboard box before He throws it into the refiner’s fire? What in our lives is pure enough that will survive the fire?
A FIRE RESISTANT STRUCTURE
1 Corinthians 3:11-16 says that Christ is the foundation. It also says that some men will build on that foundation with a pure Christian life, which is gold, silver, and costly stones, while others will build on it with hay, grass, and straw and is symbolic of a weak and impure life.
In that Day, the Bible says, “If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames[1].”
That scene at the trash bin had a huge impact on my spiritual life. I thought to myself, Lord, what will be the sum total of my spiritual life when you come to collect my spirit? Will there be anything in my little brown cardboard box after the fire?
BLUEPRINTS FOR A FIRE RESISTANT STRUCTURE
I asked the Lord, “How do you define gold, silver, and costly stones? With what do I fill up my little brown cardboard box?”
The Lord said to me, Son, “These are things that are likened unto gold, silver, and costly stones: ‘. . .Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and, love your neighbor as yourself[2].’”
God put many verses on my heart that day as He defined those things likened unto gold, silver, and costly stones. I learned that Luke 10:27 was, and still is, the most important to Him. (For your own personal study, you can find the rest of the Scriptures that the Lord gave to me, in the endnotes[3].)
MOVING IN
Then the Holy Spirit put everything into perspective for me, “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory[4].”
When I read, “When Christ, who is (y)our life. . .” that hit me. How many times have I read that passage and just skimmed over it? We are His body and Christ is the head of that body[5]. He is the foundation of the temple and we are the temple of God[6]. Hallelujah!
The Lord was telling me that we should constantly be aware that we are an extension of Him and because the body connects to the head, it can only do what the head tells it. When people interact with us. . .will they see Christ in us? What will be in our little brown cardboard boxes when Christ requires our Spirits? Will we just squeak into heaven like the thief on the Cross?
By filling our little brown cardboard boxes with a pure Christian life, by encouraging others, and by representing Christ here on Earth we will garner our rewards for a job well done, thou good and faithful servants[7], and will appear with Him in glory[8].
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[1] 1 Corinthians 3:14, 15
[2] Luke 10:27
[3] Deuteronomy 11:27; Exodus 20:2-17;Mark 11:25; Philippians 4:8; Galatians 5:22, 23; 1 Peter 1:16; Mark 16:15; Proverbs 6:17-19; Colossians 3:2-17
[4] Colossians 3:1-4
[5] Colossians 1:18
[6] 1 Corinthians 3:16
[7] Mathew 25:21
[8] Colossians 3:4
4 comments:
Great devotional piece Jim.
It reminded me of a "box" containing some of my Dad's "memories." A few years before she died, my step mother showed me an old cigar box with several photos of my dad, some medals from WWII and other misc. items. She wanted me to have it, but I felt odd taking memories of my dad when she was still living. I thought she should keep them. Then, when she died, the box was nowhere to be found. I've always wondered if she threw it out. To this day I regret not taking the box. I miss him a great deal. That box was a part of his story I'll never recapture.
Lots of good stuff! GBY! You asked God what is the "gold, silver and prescious stones?" This is just my opinion but ... I believe that the gold, silver and gems speak of [represent] the chacteristics of Christ. As we grow in the Lord [remember His seed is in us] it is only natural that what He is will be reproduced in us. We will look like Christ! So, we are building with Him.
Wow, Jim, what an incredible post! I was brought to tears twice.
It answers the most important question of our life on earth, of this world and all the things in it. What of our lives on earth will survive our departure and survive the refining fire? What on earth is really real?
A very important and very life-changing message! And very well written, too!
This makes me think of John Wesley who died leaving a few books, his preaching gown, 6 pound notes, and some silver spoons. That was all of his material possessions - about $30 worth.
However he also left the Methodist church, 135,000 strong (at the time), orphanages, missions he financed, and Bibles and hymns he printed.
He made lots of money, and he gave it all back to God. And people say he died poor???
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