I was recently reading about the annual vintage car auction held in Scottsdale, Arizona. One man in particular was in attendance hoping to buy his twenty fourth car. When asked what he found so alluring in his classic 1963 Buick Rivera that many consider one of the all-time best looking American cars (although mine is the 1958 Corvette) he smiled indulgently and simply answered, “Yesterday”. Another family was selling a classic 1964 Austin-Healy 3000 British roadster that the parents had driven on their honeymoon. As the bidding goes up to $75,000, their widowed mother consoles herself by stating, “It’s only metal. The memories are what you hold on to”.
But as nostalgic as these cars appear, neither the collectors nor the cars can outrun fate. Rust corrodes the metals, the plastics and rubber age and crack, leather seats tear, glass pits and cracks, fluids go dry, paint fades, and the mechanics slowly wear out. Maybe this article hit home this week as I was dealing with a recent invasion of termites under my garage floor, the pump and electronics failed on my aging washer and dryer, and my own car received a complimentary white door ding from some considerate parking mate. All of which kept reminding me of one of those eternal truths that Jesus passed along in Matthew 6 when he said that we should not store up treasures here on earth where moths and rust will destroy and thieves may steal them. Instead, he advised us to store our treasures in heaven and observed that where our treasure is, there our heart will be also. An acid test can also be to consider where you spend most of your time. That doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy the blessings we receive, but it does mean that our most important job description is growing our eternal soul and character and that absolutely nothing in this worldly life has permanence, not even memories.
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