The sunshine streams through the corner windows as I sit in my favorite chair in my loft retreat, claiming some quiet time to process the past several weeks.
In just a short period of time, we have experienced both the highs and lows of this journey called life.
We grieved the rapid progress of my moms Alzheimer's, robbing us of even the ability to keep in touch with her as she lost all her awareness.
We enjoyed special times with dear friends for whom we are so thankful, and we had many days of enjoying our family and just being together.
And in the past 14 days Bob has celebrated his 70th birthday, a day the doctors didn't expect him to see,
we have buried my mom as God graciously released her from her earthly prison,
we have had a wonderful, long- planned trip to Key West,
we have learned that more tumors have appeared and Bob will have another radioembolism treatment on his liver and
will also begin taking a new medication in pill form to try and stop the cancer's growth,
and we have enjoyed the hugs and laughter of our grandsons in our home and the smiles and waves of our granddaughter on FaceTime.
And life goes on and the journey continues and the anchor holds and giving thanks and choosing joy remains our response.
On our trip to Key West we visited the Mel Fisher Maritime Museum, which tells the story of this mans remarkable quest to find the sunken Spanish galleon Atocha, buried in the deep waters off of Key West . Loaded with unimaginable treasure of gold, silver, other precious metals and jewels, this ship had eluded discovery for nearly 400 years, but Mel Fisher was committed to finding it, persevering through many hardships and deep personal loss.
On his office desk sat a wooden sign with his motto for the search, the words he said to his crew every single day that they went out to sea during his more than 16 year search for the treasure, "Today's the day!" And his search was rewarded on July 20, 1985, when he finally discovered the 1/2 billion dollar treasure trove!
As I stared at the replica of the sign, I thought how " Today's the day" is a great motto for our lives. We also seek a treasure, but our treasure is not gold or silver or precious jewels, it is far, far more important and of infinitely greater value.
. We seek the treasure of daily moments of grace, of precious jewels of time spent with family and friends, of seeing God's glory on display in His beautiful creation, and in the love and compassion of His people, of the golden assurance that we are held in His hand every moment and He is always at work on our behalf.
Our treasure is His word in our hearts, His promises in our souls, His Spirit giving us assurance and power in our spirits as we journey through the highs and lows of life. Our treasure is unseen but assured, it has been paid for in the blood of our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ, and secured through His resurrection, it is waiting for us in Heaven but also given daily in the earnest money of each moment that we have eyes to see His hand, His heart, His grace in our lives.
"Today's the day!"to claim the treasure that is offered to us, freely and lovingly and expansively, if we will only choose to lay hold of it. I am choosing to get up every morning from now on with the expectation of finding treasure, boldly proclaiming as a reminder to myself, "Today's the day!"
I will daily choose to give thanks, to choose joy, to see grace all around me, and if I do this, the treasure will be mine!
One of my favorite hymns by one of my favorite groups, Selah, seems appropriate for this talk on treasure! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKByTfiHOFE
