All About Boxes

The Playhouse
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>   Boxes!  They've been a big part of my life in our moving process.  Friends have saved and shared their empty cardboard boxes so we could transport our "treasures" in them.  I'm indebted to them and their boxes.  I'm even more indebted to the inventor of the cardboard box - the efficient lightweight, recyclable container that saves me from carrying our items by the armloads.  We've packed everything transportable in the handy carriers.  Long-live the #1 aid for moving!
>   I've discovered that our lives are surrounded by boxes - and they all hold necessities, valuables, or treasures.  There are shoe boxes in my closet, jewelry boxes on the shelf, and a toy box in the loft.  There are little boxes for nails and tacks, medium size boxes for flatware, crackers and cereal, and mega boxes for lamps and larger valuables.
>   I recall the first treasure given to me in a little box.  It reiterated the truth of :  "If it comes in a little black, velvet box, I'll love it."  Othel and I were at Delta State and  infected with the love bug.  It was late afternoon on a road in Shelby, MS when he stopped the car and handed me the little black box.  What a treasure rested inside its velvet walls!
>   In our sorting and packing our thirty-eight years of accumulations, I've found more than one medium size box holding personal treasures:  original Mother's Day cards with personal notes from Tahya and Eli, plaster hand prints,  school day pictures with snaggle-toothed smiles and uneven bangs, ribbons from talent shows and art work from not-so-promising young artists.  Cardboard boxes can definitely hold treasures.
>   Last week a large wooden box - beautifully embellished rolled past me at the funeral home.  I thought to myself - another box - and holding the most valuable treasure - the body of a loved one.  This "box" would be the final earthly resting place for this child of God and would leave family and friends to be placed in a nearby cemetery.  The sadness of the separation was heavy, and then a new meaning suddenly flashed through the gloom.  Cemeteries are where we bury our treasures!  Surely God must see acres of buried treasure instead of the cold, gray marble on cemetery plots.  According to His promise, one day there will be a trumpet blast, and all those boxes of treasures will be emptied as the dead in Christ rise in glorified bodies.
>   That will mean the end of a lot of things - and boxes will be one of them.  There won't be any more moves.