“Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what
manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness,” 2
Peter 3:11
Immaterial things can never be
valued by material means, only reflected in them. The most precious things in life cannot be
seen, and the most durable things cannot be bought or sold. When it is all said and done, a life lived
with Christ within it what will count.
The commitment to serve God, and live sanctified will last.
Today my parents sold a 20-year-old
Ford Econoline conversion van. It was a
big old thing, with plush seats, built in monitor, limo lighting, and a back
seat that reclined into a bed. It had a
big V8 engine that carried us all over the Southeast, bearing the license plate
labeled “OURSONS3.” Originally, they had
hoped for “OUR3SONS”, but that was taken.
Not sure what it was sold for, but I know it was substantially less than
what it was bought for. On paper, it
drastically depreciated in value; but then again, there are some things that don’t
show up on a balance sheet. The van was
nicknamed “Scooby”, because the shape of it kind of resembled the famous Scooby
Van in the cartoon. It was like eight
feet tall and all white with pin strips down the side. When you accelerated, it felt less like a car
and more like a boat struggling to get on plane. My brothers and I learned to drive in
it. Countless friends traveled with us
in it. It carried us to revival
meetings, tent meetings, country meetings, family outings, vacations, and of
course around all around town. I am sure
when our fellow church members pulled up to church, and saw the “Scooby” in the
parking lot; they knew the Collins family was at church. We were raised around that van; you could say
we were partly raised in that van, and the van showed signs of raising three
boys. To the buyer, this was all a negative. A reason why the value should be lower, but
to the seller, it made it hard to let go; because there are somethings you
cannot put a price on that still carry value.
Call it sentimentality, or naivety, but at the end of the day where we
learn to love and grow; grows love in us.
What makes the “Scooby” so precious to us is the love that we
experienced. It has little material
value, but the immaterial value is far more substantial because our parents
showed us love and how to love. They
showed us how to be parents, how to be man and wife, how to be a neighbor, how
to be a sanctified servant of Jesus Christ.
They led (and continue to lead) by example behind the wheel of a Ford
Econoline for twenty years. I saw them
vote with their feet my entire young life.
We were taught by example, to be teachers by example. Now time marches on, the old van is gone, but
the example lingers on. We are going to
leave behind our houses that our children take our first steps in, our jobs
where we earn our first paycheck, the pew where we sit on Sunday morning, the cars
that carry us around for 20 years. We
will leave it all behind one day. This
world is not our home. We are pilgrims
and strangers here. The value is not in the
van, but in the commitment. The commitment
to serve God, and live sanctified.
Jesus is righteousness, and
righteousness to the world. He is the
only thing that makes the world around us precious, and what makes our memories
grand. In the end, all these thing shall be dissolved.
We are existing in a decaying body, surrounded by decaying things; it is
foolish to think we can hang onto them.
We will die, they will dissolve, but a Godly example will not. The immaterial things that exalt Christ’s character
within this day to day life with live on; and one day, we will live forever with
him; so what manner of persons ought we to be?
