Who Holds My Treasure?

Who Holds My Treasure?


Our daughter was packing to leave the country as a research scholar with Suffolk University at age twenty, first for a semester in Nepal followed by a semester in Spain. Her venture would be an independent study and she would stay with host families. Everything she took would be carried on her back and would sustain her for seven months. Now…to pack her treasures.

I was anticipating our son’s decision to apply for The Salvation Army’s Summer Service Team and would be leaving for India. He too would pack his treasures and move on.

What of my treasures? For twenty-one years I had mothered our children. Often in their infant years I wondered if they would see adulthood. At one point the doctors told us that Helen would not live longer that the age of fourteen. Every officer mother works out a schedule to balance her role as a mother, wife and minister. Still there were times when the decisions I had to make were complicated with hospitalizations, surgeries, and the constant need of attention for our children. I was always hearing the doctor’s words in the back of my mind that our children may not survive their infant years or see adulthood.

There were always well-meaning advice givers who offered solutions. “You belong at home with your children; you belong at the corps community center with your husband, you are an officer first and foremost; or you need to give these difficult times to God,” were just some of their urges. I remember hearing once at an officers’ council (which is a meeting for the clergy in The Salvation Army), “I take parenting seriously and so should you.” I seriously wondered if parenting would be a continued reality for me! Who thought of it as a game anyway? Having someone competent, care for our children and ministering at The Salvation Army helped me to cope. Was it wrong? Our children needed to be treated as normal as possible. What is normal anyway?

As the years progressed, our children became part of our ministry team. Christmas was always a family affair: on the kettles, in the nursing homes, and always Christmas Eve in a shelter or somewhere we could love those in need. Corps life, however difficult at times, was what brought us together in Christ and in service. Evangelism was our goal.

As Helen packed her treasures to take with her, I felt as if I were losing mine. How would I minister without her or how could I even focus on others wondering how she was? What if she were sick, lost or even worse; what if she needed me?

Then we sang the words of Ann Warnings’ song in Officer’s Councils 2000. I realized that God was well aware of my treasures and me. I committed my treasures, my two children, again to the living God who would hold my treasures when I could not…
“My Savior has my treasures, and He will walk with me!”
Thank you, Lord!