Drake has, for quite some time, called Judson, Jessie, and me his “treasures.”  He would often come home from work and shout up the stairs, “Where are my treasures?” to which I regularly responded with groans and a smile to make sure he knew just how totally and completely sappy I think he is.  However, now that Judson has gone home to be with Jesus, I see how fitting it is that Drake called him a treasure.

Jesus challenges people to store up treasures in heaven, where moth and rust cannot destroy, rather than storing up treasures here on earth that have no eternal value (Matthew 6:20,21).

Judson is our very tangible treasure, now in heaven.

Losing Jud here on earth has begun to cure me of this world.  The “stuff” of this life, now more than ever, pails in comparison to my longings for eternity, where pain, sin, and death will be no more.  I want my “treasures” to be things of lasting importance, and my time, energy, and resources, given to that which cannot be destroyed by the elements of this earthly existence.

This world is not my home.  Judson is home.  I long to be home with Jesus too.

At times it is sad to recognize that it took my son dying for me to really begin to comprehend what it means when the apostle Paul says that to die is gain…I am starting to get it now-this life is but a catalyst for the next.  It is a blip in the scheme of eternity (though it admittedly feels like it will be forever before I see Jud again).  And what we cherish here on earth, matters after we die.

This Matthew 6 passages is actually a song that Jud and I would regularly sing in the car.  At one point in the song, we would emphatically shout, “Where your treasure is…there your heart will be also.”

I now have a very special treasure in heaven, and because of this, my heart is there too.