Boulevard of Broken Dreams

As I write this, it has been six months since Hurricane Ivan devastated the Gulf Coast, both in Alabama and the Florida panhandle. Recently, some friends and I rode around the Pensacola Beach area to survey the damage. We drove down to see how the “hurricane house” fared. We call it that due to its dome-shaped, concrete exterior. The house survived just fine, except it’s missing the stairs which once grandly swept up on either side of the front of the house. They said the stairs were designed to break away, though. Better that than the whole house, I assume.

That whole neighborhood where the hurricane house is…well, it used to be nearly claustrophobic. There were so many houses there that I literally felt a little smushed while driving down that road. (You know how when you drive in a parking deck, the ceiling seems too low and you almost duck, thinking you’re going to scrape the roof of your car against the ceiling? Like that, only sideways.) Now, after the hurricane, only about one-third of the houses still remain, and a great number of those have extensive damage.

While driving through the neighborhood, we noticed this immense sand dune. We stopped and everybody (but me) ran up to the top of the dune. Seriously, it was between four and five stories high. While everybody was catching their breaths at the top of the dune, I walked along the water’s edge looking for anything interesting. What I found is very sad. It’s a piece of Blue Willow china.

I picked up the piece of china and held it in the palm of my hand. I listened to the waves crashing and I looked up at the huge dune where my friends were. I gazed around at all the destruction – all the houses missing their fronts so you can see in the kitchen and see things still in the cupboards…all the houses with garages filled to the top with sand…the hurricane house, missing its front steps. I thought this was a piece of somebody’s china. It could have been a wedding present. They probably really loved this china.

Then I recalled, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:19-21, NKJV).

I still have that piece of china as a reminder that life is fragile. Sometimes what I think is important and what actually is important might be two different things. Where are your treasures laid up? Are you storing your treasure in heaven?