HIDDEN

 It's one of the most frequently memorized Bible verses:

Thy word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against thee. (Psalm 119:11)

That verse sometimes came to mind as I look out the window and watch the local squirrels hurriedly dig a hole and drop in a just-acquired walnut. Often, when weeding, I find these “squirreled away” treasures. Some were quite dried out and dead, although a few had a tiny stem starting to poke out. A future walnut tree. But without the right conditions (good soil, water, light), most would never produce a tree.

When this psalm was written, the “Word” referred to the Torah or the “Law,” what we call the “Pentateuch.” That's the first section of today's Bible (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy), the scriptures of the psalmist's time. Today it means the Bible's entirety: Old Testament history, poetry, prophecy and the “second half” (“New Testament”) with truths revealed through Jesus Christ's life and teachings. It's not a handbook given new employees! It's the ages-old counsel God provided for all humans.

The word translated “hid,” is from the Hebrew tsaphan, meaning to treasure, hoard, or cover. It's more than our English-language idea of “hiding” something from view. It's more like weaving golden strands of God's pure and loving standards into the fabric for everyday life. Those strands are heavenly truth to teach, reprove, correct and provide training in God's righteousness (2 Timothy 3:16).

Back to squirrels. They're not the only ones who hoard. Add in: chipmunks, hamsters, rats, mice, woodpeckers, corvids (crow family), moles, fire ants and fiddle crabs! And yes, humans. I've been inside the living quarters of hoarders. It is utterly sad that they can't let go of “things.” As I say this, my finger is pointed back at myself as I pursue “paring down piles” in my own home.

This whole idea of “stuff” (or personal treasures) takes me to the biographies of godly people like Corrie ten Boom. When arrested by the Nazis in World War 2, she was able to hide under her clothing a small copy of the Bible. Miraculously, during her concentration camp imprisonment, she was able to keep it from being discovered. At night, she'd bring it out in the filthy prisoner dorm (see one at this site: corrie ten boom prison camp - Search Images) and share with these hopeless women about Jesus and her hope in Him.

I hope you looked at that picture. Consider your despair if you'd been one of the cold, starving prisoners crammed into lice-infested, stacked bunks—all victims of a dark life outlook based on greed and political power. Then, look to Jesus. And scriptures.

The book about Corrie ten Boom's nightmare Nazi imprisonment (later a movie of the same name) was called “The Hiding Place,” referring to a hidden room in her home where she sheltered refugees before her own arrest. It also alludes to the declaration of David, himself a refugee from King Saul's murderous hunt for him, referred in Psalm 32:7:

You are my hiding place; You preserve me from trouble; You surround me with songs of deliverance. Selah.

“Selah” is a Hebrew word loosely translated, “Stop and think about it.” Thus I'll end: Selah!

All dolled up and nowhere to go

 Cars were parked up and down the block as I arrived at an estate sale that had advertised fabric. I’m always watching for inexpensive flannel to sew baby blankets donated to hospitals for needy families. The two long tables stacked with material didn’t have what I used, but as I moved on through the yard I was astonished by hundreds of dolls and doll paraphernalia. It went on and on....The same was true of ceramic and glass trinkets burdening other tables. Going inside, it got worse. Multiple sets of dishes and other knickknacks were meticulously organized and priced.

I’m thankful that my community has two groups (one benefiting a local non-profit agency) that hire out to conduct estate sales. They relieve survivors of an often oppressive burden in breaking down a household. I handled that task after my parents died.  It was a long and difficult process requiring, in my case, seven yard sales. The most challenging items to sell were my mother’s tea-cup and salt-and-pepper-shaker collections

That recent day, as I inched around heaped tables, I asked one of the helpers if this was one of the bigger sales they had handled.  He nodded and replied, “There’s another sale next week. We haven’t even started in on the basement.”

Convicted of my own “piles,” I came home and loaded a box for the local thrift store!      But I couldn’t get the heaps of dolls out of my mind.  How long had that person collected them?  Did she play with them? Or were they boxed away because she didn’t know what to do with all of them?

Walking past so many dolls, I thought of a girl in Haiti we have sponsored for years through a compassion ministry. Sometimes we sent extra (above sponsor fees for her schooling) for her to buy herself something. Months later we’d get a translated thank-you note indicating she used the extra gift to buy food for her family.  One time she admitted she bought a doll.  ONE doll.

I’ve had recent encounters with real-life hoarders, and it is sad and frustrating. But this estate sale’s piles of dolls astounded me.  I thought of Ecclesiastes 5:10-11, which says, “Those who love money [or what money buys—my add-on] will never have enough.  How absurd to think that wealth brings true happiness. The more you have, the more people come to help you spend it.  So what is the advantage of wealth—except perhaps to watch it run through your fingers!” (NLT). 

This person didn’t live in a wealthy neighborhood. Most of it is smaller “starter homes” that are a half century or so old. But her compulsion to collect dolls and other trinkets was apparently big in her life.

In contrast, the apostle Paul held loosely onto “things.” It was the only way to live as an underfunded traveling evangelist in days when your feet or a boat got you places. “Godliness with contentment is great gain,” he counseled his protégé, Timothy.  “For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content” (1 Timothy 6:7-8 NKJV).

Possessed by possessions

Among local annual yard sales, this one has to be the biggest. The ad, in fact, bragged that it was the family’s 17^th annual sale.  Extended family, obviously. I found a partial bag of quilt batting.  My husband found a fishing pole. But as we pulled away from the piles (much of it soggy from the previous night’s rain), I found myself asking, “Why so much?” That view of foothills in the background reminded me to “look higher” than the motley collection of used stuff below.

Disclaimer: we have our own “piles,” but we’re working at paring them down.  “Stuff” collects via my husband’s hobby of restoring broken bikes and mowers to usefulness, and recycling quality used children’s books to local schools. I turn fabric scraps into baby blankets for the local hospital to give the homeless or impoverished who deliver there. But there comes a point of too much stuff. When I’m in the home of a hoarder (now classified as an obsessive compulsive behavior), I feel so “closed in” that I can hardly wait to get out.

The Bible says a lot about our possessions:

*Stuff breeds greed.  One day a man came to Jesus wanting His help in an inheritance dispute. Jesus declined, saying, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions” (Luke 12:15). Paul put greed in the same list with sexual immorality and impurity, as “not proper for God’s holy people” (Eph. 5:3).

*Too much “stuff” masks the real “us.” When Paul planned a return ministry trip to Corinth, he said he didn’t want to be a burden to them.  He was a low-maintenance missionary, anyway.  He didn’t require a luxury suite with a hot tub. “What I want,” he said, “is not your possessions but you” (2 Cor. 12:14).

*Having less leads to more that truly lasts. When the writer of Hebrews talked about those who were persecuted, even to having their possessions taken away, he remarked, “You...joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property, because you knew that you yourselves had better and lasting possessions” (Hebrews 10:34). Sadly, this wasn’t a First Century incident. It still rings true today for believers in lands hostile to Christians. For a powerful fiction treatment of this, get into Randy Alcorn’s novel, Safely Home.

*Abundance enables sharing. The apostle John lived long enough to see a lot of inequity among the rich and poor. To better-off believers he gave this advice: “If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need, but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?” (1 John 3:17). My husband is part of a ministry that receives still-useful furniture (from upgrading, downsizing, or estates) to distribute to the very needy (like women fleeing domestic abuse). I’ve been given boxes of fabric by people who learn of my “needy-babies” blanket project.

*Sharing gives back. Someone with a giving heart once remarked to me, “I don’t miss what I gave away.” There’s so much truth in this proverb: “One man gives freely, yet gains even more; another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty” (Proverbs 11:24).

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go through some things I don’t use...like those white dressy heels I wore for my daughter’s wedding.  My once-broken ankle is too weak for heels any more.  And then....