Paper Work, Glorious Paper Work.....

"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven where moth and rust do not destroy and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

Matthew 6:19-21

Dear Readers, I have been positively swimming in paper work. This kind of paper work is not of the dull variety like bank statements, tax forms, or bill paying. Those I leave to dear hubby to do. Nope, this has been pure pleasure. I have snipped, clipped, glued, and glittered to my hearts content. I was totally inspired by my latest acquisition, an old suit case full of vintage ephemera.Last week I stopped in one of my favorite antique stores and I literally stumbled over a box full of old papers and saw some sheet music peeking out so I decided to dig. This box held some of the coolest contents I had ever seen. The price tag said each piece of ephemera was $1.00. I picked out a few and went to the check out. As the owner and I were chatting casually she said she wished I'd buy it all. She said I could have this really great old suit case, all its contents, and the box I had stumbled over for $30.00. I talked her down to $25.00 and dragged it all home. Please, some ephemera aficionado, tell me I got a good deal!

When I got home I dug through my treasure with darling daughter snatching up sheet music right and left and hubby grabbing old car and car product ads as I went. I was adding to my pile all the Harper's Bazaar and Godey's Ladies books dated in the 1800's, calling cards, photos, post cards, vintage ads for beauty products and grocery items, and a few Currier and Ives calendar prints. The really old pieces were so delicate and fragile that they were literally crumbling away to dust and they had to be handled very carefully. We were all in paper heaven!
After much oohing and ahhing and calling to one another, "Look at this!", the ephemera extravaganza was over and we each felt we had received a great treasure. Darling daughter could fill the house with sweet music from her voice or her flute. Hubby had plenty of cool ads to frame and display in his vintage styled garage. I had plenty to frame, hang, and copy to inspire and use in numerous art projects.
After we got everything all sorted out I carefully packed everything back into the suit case for storage. I gently placed the oldest pieces on top, closed the lid, and snapped the locks shut. I instructed everyone to keep the suit case flat when getting it down from the shelf as not to disturb the contents and cause any further crumbling until I could get all the paper treated to stop the aging process.

Today as I was snipping, clipping, gluing, and glittering using some copies of the vintage pieces I thought back over our reaction to a tatty old suit case full of outdated, crumbling, yellowed paper. I realized with a start that the Lord was once again giving me a little life lesson.
It is so easy to be enticed by the things of this earth, to desire, acquire, and store up more stuff than we need or can use in a lifetime. When I stumbled over that box and I saw the contents it held I did have an overwhelming desire to own it all. Wisdom told me to only take what I needed and I did when I chose only a few pieces. Then temptation was thrown my was in the form of a promise of even more at bargain price and I found myself easily enticed into acquiring it all. This is when earthly treasures can became a stumbling block. When presented to my family, each of us were lured to something different in the treasure trove of papers. We all began to hoard our own piles and proceeded to handle these earthly treasure with such great care. We were storing them up.God has given us all things to enjoy in moderation. Will we enjoy and use these earthly treasures? Yes, we will. Will we hoard them all to ourselves? No, we have already separated much of it to be shared. Will we care if they are lost, damaged, or stolen? No, not at all. Will we prize these crumbly pieces of paper above all else? Certainly not!
This was just a gentle reminder to exercise wisdom when faced with temptation, to evaluate and separate my needs from my desires, and to be careful not to put a stumbling block in front of someone else, and to make sure that the only paper work we put a great emphasis on are pages of glorious Scripture where we will be storing up treasure in heaven where moth and rust do not destroy.

Blessings,

Miss Sandy