When my oldest daughter, Annie, was about three years old, she didn't have many toys. I was an associate pastor at the time, and Beki had just given birth to our son, Zeej. Things were really tight for us financially. We ended every month in the red, and could only buy Annie the things she needed, like clothes and homeschool supplies. Occasionally we would splurge and buy her a new cup or some coloring books.
Most of our money had to go to food, bills, debts we'd incurred before we got married (like student loans), and of course the baby supplies. Still, God kept in our hearts an understanding that we were very blessed. Some friends of ours were trying to adopt, and we bought some things from them as well as sold some things of our own to help with the adoption costs. Sometimes people would come to our house asking for help and we never turned anyone down.
Our church family was very kind and took good care of us. They made us meals, took us out to eat, and on occasion handed us some food cards or some petty cash. Friends of the family would buy Annie dolls, but most of her toys were hand-me-downs. All of our furniture was given to us, including our TV. We were living in a borrowed home. We didn't have cable or smartphones. It was very basic living.
Even when things were at their most difficult, we didn't complain. And bless her heart, neither did Annie. I'm sure she recognized that she didn't have the nice play-things her friends had, but she never argued about it. She had a very vivid imagination, and would make her fingers have conversations with each other as though they were action figures. Really.
One time a friend of the family handed us a gift card and said, "Use this to buy something nice for Annie." So we bought her something she always wanted and we never had the money to buy -- a Disney princess castle. It wasn't one of the more elaborate castles. Just a small, cheap, plastic, pink castle. But for Annie, it may have well been Neuschwanstein Castle. She adored her new palace.
We also got her a few Disney princesses with exchangeable outfits. Again, nothing fancy. They were small figurines with rubber dresses, and you could trade the dresses among the princesses. Annie had a horse and carriage that had been given to her, a piece from some other kind of play set. It wasn't even to the scale of her castle, but she made it her royal carriage, large enough to transport all her princesses from one place to the next.
And yet, there was something missing from her magical fantasyland. She had the princesses. She had her elaborate castle. She even had an over-sized horse and carriage. But there was no hero. No prince charming to come and sweep any one of these deserving princesses off her delicate plastic feet.
One day, while listening to her play, my dad heart was overcome. I went out to the garage and opened one of my totes in storage. It was full of Star Wars action figures, still in their original packaging.
Perhaps you'll remember that back in the 90s, George Lucas re-released the original Star Wars trilogy in theaters as an enhanced special edition. It was Star Wars' 20th anniversary, and along with the film they also remade the action figures. I was in high school at the time, and I bought at least two dozen, all main characters -- Luke, Leia, Han, Vader, Obi-Wan, etc.
I didn't buy them to play with them. I bought them so they would accumulate in value and one day sell them for a profit. My younger brothers were totally baffled by this. Why was Gabe buying action figures he had no intention of playing with?
Somehow they'd survived college and multiple moves, and were still just as new-looking as the day I bought them. And I was about to give one of them up. Because I didn't even have enough money to buy Annie a Disney prince charming, I had to liquidate an investment.
Han Solo seemed like the best candidate. Yeah, I know, he's a nerf herder and a bit of a scoundrel. But of the bunch, he at least looked the most like a prince charming. I felt like it was my solemn dad duty. I needed to sacrifice Han from my treasure trove for the happiness of a little girl. I opened the package, and brought him to Annie.
She hadn't seen Star Wars yet -- again, she was only three. She didn't recognize him. So I introduced him to her: "This is Han Solo, and he has come to take your princesses to the ball." She was so ecstatic! And I'm sure somewhere in his plastic chest, so was Han Solo. He'd been set free from his tote prison and introduced to a harem of Disney princesses.
Fast forward about six years to this past weekend. I've been working on constructing a more adequate laundry room down in our basement for my wife. We've accumulated so much junk in our garage that I don't have anywhere to cut wood. Most of the stuff just needed to be tossed, so I went on a cleaning spree and in the process, I came across my boxes of action figures.
It's now been 20 years since I first bought those Star Wars figurines (minus a Han Solo). How much could they have accumulated in value over the past two decades? So I hopped on the computer and started doing some research. The answer is -- not much. The Darth Vader that cost me $4.95 in 1997 was now worth $14.95 in 2017. What? Really? That's it?
Alright, well how much had Han Solo accumulated in value? Surely that was a more noble sacrifice than a mere $10 mark-up, right? I mean, the guy's dead now and will only be featured in prequel movies from here on out. Surely that's got to increase his demand.
Well, it turns out that very Han Solo which cost me $4.95 in 1997 was now worth a whopping... five dollars and ninety-nine cents twenty years later. A difference of one dollar and four pennies. That doesn't even cover inflation! My Han Solo actually lost value!
Of course, I didn't know that at the time I gave him up. It was a big sacrifice! Annie surely didn't care if Han Solo cost 495 pennies or 495 dollars. He was worth his weight in gold when I handed her the little figurine to become part of her magic kingdom. Thankfully, love cannot be quantified in dollars and cents -- because I still don't have a lot of that!
Sometimes we might think the kind deed we did for someone else mattered a lot, and then we find out it really wasn't worth as much as we thought. Other times we might think we haven't done much of anything at all, and it turns out to be a priceless act of love.
The Bible says, "Let love be genuine" (Romans 12:9). Don't be fake. Don't do things to get recognition for yourself. Give without expecting anything in return. Consider the needs of others ahead of your own. Be grateful when someone else does something for you, even if what they gave didn't quite meet your expectations. They may have given you all they could.
You don't know the intentions of someone's heart, but you can know if your own intentions were authentic. Test yourself. Examine your own heart against what God says in His word, the Bible. What does He say love is supposed to look like? Give to the glory of God, not for the glory of others. Then the Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you (Matthew 6:3-4).
I held on to some action figures for about 20 years that turned out to be worth not as much as I had hoped. So I'm giving them to my kids now, and they're excited to play with them. I did get something wonderful out of them after all -- it just wasn't the treasure that I thought I would get when I first started investing!
Moments like these that I experience on earth with my kids and with my family, are but a small, tiny taste of the overwhelming joy of heaven that awaits all those who are followers of Christ. Store up treasures in heaven and not on earth, Jesus said. The reward you will receive will be worth far more than you could have asked or imagined.
Most of our money had to go to food, bills, debts we'd incurred before we got married (like student loans), and of course the baby supplies. Still, God kept in our hearts an understanding that we were very blessed. Some friends of ours were trying to adopt, and we bought some things from them as well as sold some things of our own to help with the adoption costs. Sometimes people would come to our house asking for help and we never turned anyone down.
Our church family was very kind and took good care of us. They made us meals, took us out to eat, and on occasion handed us some food cards or some petty cash. Friends of the family would buy Annie dolls, but most of her toys were hand-me-downs. All of our furniture was given to us, including our TV. We were living in a borrowed home. We didn't have cable or smartphones. It was very basic living.
Even when things were at their most difficult, we didn't complain. And bless her heart, neither did Annie. I'm sure she recognized that she didn't have the nice play-things her friends had, but she never argued about it. She had a very vivid imagination, and would make her fingers have conversations with each other as though they were action figures. Really.
One time a friend of the family handed us a gift card and said, "Use this to buy something nice for Annie." So we bought her something she always wanted and we never had the money to buy -- a Disney princess castle. It wasn't one of the more elaborate castles. Just a small, cheap, plastic, pink castle. But for Annie, it may have well been Neuschwanstein Castle. She adored her new palace.
 |
| In case you didn't get the reference. |
We also got her a few Disney princesses with exchangeable outfits. Again, nothing fancy. They were small figurines with rubber dresses, and you could trade the dresses among the princesses. Annie had a horse and carriage that had been given to her, a piece from some other kind of play set. It wasn't even to the scale of her castle, but she made it her royal carriage, large enough to transport all her princesses from one place to the next.
And yet, there was something missing from her magical fantasyland. She had the princesses. She had her elaborate castle. She even had an over-sized horse and carriage. But there was no hero. No prince charming to come and sweep any one of these deserving princesses off her delicate plastic feet.
One day, while listening to her play, my dad heart was overcome. I went out to the garage and opened one of my totes in storage. It was full of Star Wars action figures, still in their original packaging.
Perhaps you'll remember that back in the 90s, George Lucas re-released the original Star Wars trilogy in theaters as an enhanced special edition. It was Star Wars' 20th anniversary, and along with the film they also remade the action figures. I was in high school at the time, and I bought at least two dozen, all main characters -- Luke, Leia, Han, Vader, Obi-Wan, etc.
I didn't buy them to play with them. I bought them so they would accumulate in value and one day sell them for a profit. My younger brothers were totally baffled by this. Why was Gabe buying action figures he had no intention of playing with?
Somehow they'd survived college and multiple moves, and were still just as new-looking as the day I bought them. And I was about to give one of them up. Because I didn't even have enough money to buy Annie a Disney prince charming, I had to liquidate an investment.
Han Solo seemed like the best candidate. Yeah, I know, he's a nerf herder and a bit of a scoundrel. But of the bunch, he at least looked the most like a prince charming. I felt like it was my solemn dad duty. I needed to sacrifice Han from my treasure trove for the happiness of a little girl. I opened the package, and brought him to Annie.
She hadn't seen Star Wars yet -- again, she was only three. She didn't recognize him. So I introduced him to her: "This is Han Solo, and he has come to take your princesses to the ball." She was so ecstatic! And I'm sure somewhere in his plastic chest, so was Han Solo. He'd been set free from his tote prison and introduced to a harem of Disney princesses.
 |
| It's kind of prophetic now, when you think about it... |
Fast forward about six years to this past weekend. I've been working on constructing a more adequate laundry room down in our basement for my wife. We've accumulated so much junk in our garage that I don't have anywhere to cut wood. Most of the stuff just needed to be tossed, so I went on a cleaning spree and in the process, I came across my boxes of action figures.
It's now been 20 years since I first bought those Star Wars figurines (minus a Han Solo). How much could they have accumulated in value over the past two decades? So I hopped on the computer and started doing some research. The answer is -- not much. The Darth Vader that cost me $4.95 in 1997 was now worth $14.95 in 2017. What? Really? That's it?
Alright, well how much had Han Solo accumulated in value? Surely that was a more noble sacrifice than a mere $10 mark-up, right? I mean, the guy's dead now and will only be featured in prequel movies from here on out. Surely that's got to increase his demand.
Well, it turns out that very Han Solo which cost me $4.95 in 1997 was now worth a whopping... five dollars and ninety-nine cents twenty years later. A difference of one dollar and four pennies. That doesn't even cover inflation! My Han Solo actually lost value!
Of course, I didn't know that at the time I gave him up. It was a big sacrifice! Annie surely didn't care if Han Solo cost 495 pennies or 495 dollars. He was worth his weight in gold when I handed her the little figurine to become part of her magic kingdom. Thankfully, love cannot be quantified in dollars and cents -- because I still don't have a lot of that!
 |
| Even the piano and the Christmas tree... donated. |
Sometimes we might think the kind deed we did for someone else mattered a lot, and then we find out it really wasn't worth as much as we thought. Other times we might think we haven't done much of anything at all, and it turns out to be a priceless act of love.
The Bible says, "Let love be genuine" (Romans 12:9). Don't be fake. Don't do things to get recognition for yourself. Give without expecting anything in return. Consider the needs of others ahead of your own. Be grateful when someone else does something for you, even if what they gave didn't quite meet your expectations. They may have given you all they could.
You don't know the intentions of someone's heart, but you can know if your own intentions were authentic. Test yourself. Examine your own heart against what God says in His word, the Bible. What does He say love is supposed to look like? Give to the glory of God, not for the glory of others. Then the Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you (Matthew 6:3-4).
I held on to some action figures for about 20 years that turned out to be worth not as much as I had hoped. So I'm giving them to my kids now, and they're excited to play with them. I did get something wonderful out of them after all -- it just wasn't the treasure that I thought I would get when I first started investing!
Moments like these that I experience on earth with my kids and with my family, are but a small, tiny taste of the overwhelming joy of heaven that awaits all those who are followers of Christ. Store up treasures in heaven and not on earth, Jesus said. The reward you will receive will be worth far more than you could have asked or imagined.