August 28

Reality Check


Wherever your treasure is, there your heart and thoughts will also be.

Matthew 6:21 (NLT)


Last night we heard a metallic slam, some crying and then voices in front of our home. As I rushed outside, it didn’t look good. A young neighborhood boy lay stretched out on our sidewalk. Two adults huddled over him, talking with him. And there, behind him in the street, lay his crushed bicycle—still under the heavy weight of a Toyota Tundra pickup.

Within a minute the boys mother raced to his side and was soon pumping him for information. It was an interesting contrast. As the boy lay there moaning and whimpering, she expressed her concern with the other adults in a series of short questions and comments.

“Sam, where does it hurt? Can you hear me? Can you bend this leg? Sam? Talk to me, Sam!”

“The bike. Is it ruined?”

“Sam, listen. You’re going to be okay!”

Fortunately, some ER nurses were there, and Sam was safely loaded into a car and taken to the hospital—but what a contrast between Sam and the adults around him. It was a picture too of us and our Heavenly Father.

As less than mature Christians, don't we focus on the less important, the temporary, the material things while God’s heart is consumed with care for us? Amazing—even when the world hits us head on and throws us to the ground....

As we think on Him, may our hearts and thoughts be more like His—fixed on the important, the eternal, the things that last!


Lord, make us more like You—wise, understanding and full of compassion. Amen.