SOUVENIRS

When I was a kid I used to love collecting souvenirs. Not that my parents ever went on trips to the kinds of places that are often household words. But did do lots of short outings to locations in our own part of the world. Fortunately growing up in Southern California with its bounty of entertainment options did give me a chance to start a reasonably modest collection of souvenirs.

For me what truly constituted a “souvenir” was a post card. I had this big scrapbook filled with all kinds of post cards. And my biggest thrill is when I found one that was in some way funny or unique. My pride and joy was this one that was so large it fit an entire page of my scrapbook. It might not have had any significant financial value, but it gave me lots of joy to possess. As with many things from my youth I did not continue this hobby as an adult. I even forgot about the scrapbook over the years.

That was until about a year ago when my step dad found it in a closet in box full of various memorabilia. I looked through it and allow the memories to wash over my mind. Yet admittedly after more than thirty-five years it didn’t have the same hold upon my emotions as it did at that point. I do still have the scrapbook after my step-father gave it to me. I can’t part with it for some reason, call it nostalgia, I suppose, but beyond that I don’t give it a lot of thought.

In the spiritual moments of life we also can have those “souvenirs” from our experiences. And depending on what touches our hearts, our personal souvenirs for the soul will vary.

These are sometimes the cornerstones of our intimacy with the Lord. For they are the slices of time, those postcards of spiritual encounters that we can relive at will. And even telling another about them doesn’t always impress, they still remain cherished and special in our own lives.

For the believer hopefully those are the souvenirs we aspire to collect the most. Some fill their life’s scrapbook with the collectibles of this life. They sum up their worth and meaning by what they have accomplished in terms of wealth or success.

The souvenirs of this life will not carry over with one into eternity. They will simple end up in God’s closet of things that have no value in eternity.

But the one’s we collect by the power of the Holy Spirit will be just as satisfying in eternity as they are now. What a tragedy it will be for the believer who invest more of his or her life consumed with the wrong kind of souvenir collection. That is because they end up spending part of eternity regretting the absence of their scrapbook. Which is sadly not the time when we change focus on the souvenirs that really count.

For the redeemed there are more than crowns to share with others during our time of reunion with the entire body of Christ. It will be a time when those with scrap books written by the blood of the lamb that will rejoice and know what true souvenir colleting was meant to be like.