I have a box of items that I put in my basement during tornado season. I can’t really explain why I am so crazy, I can only tell you that I know I am. But I have this box. In it, is an external hard drive, some prized crafts from my boys, and a few other small possessions. Because although things are just things, there is a small subset of my “belongings” that I would truly be sad to lose should the rest of my house be damaged in a storm. 

We live in such a things world, don’t we? We have things for our things. And things to put our things in. And things that go with other things. But most of these things are pretty trivial, right? In the big picture, there are very few items that we would actually find ourselves heartbroken over… do you agree? But I think everyone has something. Or a few somethings. Those prized, special possessions that have become more than things could ever be. They’ve become memories. Or treasures.

So I ask you today, what would you grab if your house was going down in flames? I told you what was in my tornado box. Those things are things that I rarely look at but somehow would be so sad to lose. But the thing I would grab in a fire is completely different. Obviously, I would want every inhabitant of my house out safely first. And the external hard drive with all the photos could be a bonus… but we do live in a Facebook world where photos are more readily accessible. So I’d have to say, if I had a supermarket sweep pass to grab one thing, I think it would probably be this:

You will have to forgive the quality of the photo… a photographer, I am not. But this poem sits framed atop a book shelf in my house. The words guide my first actions before I get out of bed each morning. This poem, which was inked in beautiful calligraphy by my grandfather. A man whose attention to lettering was a craft. A man who believed that no truer words had ever been written. A man that although he passed many years back, I believe is often still with me. His work gets a special place in my home. And in my heart. So if I had to choose just one “thing”… one item that I’d long to keep if possible, it would win the prize.

What would you grab in a fire? Your laptop, a camera, your favorite childhood toy, or is there not a single thing you could think of needing? While I know I could and would go on living without this thing, without my grandpa’s gift, but if given a {totally and completely} safe pass to grab it, I most definitely would. Because while I am not that into things, I am into people. A little piece of my grandpa, a little piece of advice, and a little piece of beauty all rolled into one… to me, that’s the stuff that’s worth walking through fire for… knowing, of course, that I wouldn’t get burned. 

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Holiday Priorities

I got up early one morning
and rushed right into the day;
I had so much to accomplish
that I didn’t have time to pray.

Problems just tumbled about me,
and heavier came each task.
“Why doesn’t God help me?” I wondered.
He answered, “You didn’t ask.”

I wanted to see joy and beauty,
but the day toiled on, gray and bleak;
I wondered why God didn’t show me.
He said, “But you didn’t seek.”

I tried to come into God’s presence;
I used all my keys at the lock.
God gently and lovingly chided,
“My child, you didn’t knock.”

I woke up early this morning,
and paused before entering the day;
I had so much to accomplish
that I had to take time to pray.

– Author Unknown