Hello ,

Have you ever thought about how excited you'd be if you found fantastic valuables in the home that you purchased?

A few years ago, we got pretty pumped up when my son discovered some items behind a wall in the old farmhouse we had purchased when we moved to our current location.

I've heard stories about finding items that had extreme value, and since the previous owners of our home were a couple of eccentric, old bachelor brothers, my antennas went up. 

My son reached behind that wall and began bringing items out from behind it. We were engaged in his activity, and I struggled to keep my composure when I saw an old coffee can. 

Patience has never been my strong suit.

One by one, he brought the items into the light, and one by one, our hopes of finding fantastic treasure faded like the fog on a hot summer morning.

Here is an itemized list of what we thought might be something extraordinary:

• An old cardboard half-package of mothballs
• The housing from a metal hand-held shop light
• A well-worn softball
• A small empty can
• A John Deere tractor parts receipt from 1976
• A large empty coffee can
• A length of used electrical wire
• A large rock

I was overwhelmed by just how underwhelming it all was.

Why would anyone hide these items behind a wall? I still can't answer that question, but I can say that (for a moment) the emotions were running high in our home until we examined the "worthless treasures" discovered behind that old farmhouse wall.

I hesitate to quote the entirety of Ecclesiastes 1, but it's appropriate.

1 The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem.

2 "Vanity of vanities," says the Preacher;

"Vanity of vanities, all is vanity."

3 What profit has a man from all his labor

In which he toils under the sun?

4 One generation passes away, and another generation comes;

But the earth abides forever.

5 The sun also rises, and the sun goes down,

And hastens to the place where it arose.

6 The wind goes toward the south,

And turns around to the north;

The wind whirls about continually,

And comes again on its circuit.

7 All the rivers run into the sea,

Yet the sea is not full;

To the place from which the rivers come,

There they return again.

All things are full of labor;

Man cannot express it.

The eye is not satisfied with seeing,

Nor the ear filled with hearing.

9 That which has been is what will be,

That which is done is what will be done,

And there is nothing new under the sun.

10 Is there anything of which it may be said,

"See, this is new"?

It has already been in ancient times before us.

11 There is no remembrance of former things,

Nor will there be any remembrance of things that are to come

By those who will come after.

Many have argued about Ecclesiastes's author, but I agree with those who believe it was King Solomon. If anyone had the "scoop" on what it meant to realize every temporal dream he could come up with in this life, it was a man like him. I won't go into all the things that he possessed while he traveled through life, but the list is long:

• He owned the most remarkable possessions.
• He had relationships with the most beautiful people.
• He dreamed.
• He created.
• He went toe-to-toe with the intellectually elite.
• He built whatever he wanted to make.
• He did whatever he wanted to do.
• He had whatever he wanted to have.
• He ate whatever he wanted to eat.
• He engaged in whatever activities he wanted to.

He left no temporal stone unturned, yet when it was all said and done, everything he had put so much stock in ended up being worth no more to him than that old coffee can we found behind the wall.

Nothing this world has to offer can make us eternally happy.

Money can't take us there.

No amount of self-improvement will bring us to that point.

No amount of material possessions can improve our eternal state.

No relationship can take us higher.

When we internalize these truths, we recognize that without a relationship with the One Who created us, none of what we strive for is worth very much.

After looking it over, we tossed all the stuff behind the wall. There was absolutely no reason to put it back there. It was (after all) worthless treasure.

Have a great day and God bless!

Pastor Mike / The Open Word