Happy New Year?

On New Year's Eve or Morning we had uninvited guests.

When I took the dog into the side yard on Sunday morning I noticed my lawnmower was over beside the shed. "How did that get there?" I wondered.  When I looked at the shed I noticed the doors were swinging freely and there were pry marks on the left hand door.

Sometime between 10:00 PM and 8:00 AM someone broke into our shed.  The were evidently pros.  They knew just how to break this particular latch.  They probably opened it faster than I could have done with the key!

Sure enough, they took nearly everything in the shed except for hand tools.  They took the walk behind snowblower, the yard vacuum, two leaf blowers, three string trimmers and the grass catcher from my lawnmower.  I figure they either forgot the lawnmower was beside the building and/or they were scared off suddenly.  I wish they had at least left the grass catcher with it!

So - happy new year!  Rotten low life crooks.  What dirty dogs!

But, it is important to remember it is, after all, only stuff and it can be replaced.  I was immediately reminded of Jesus' words:

(Matthew 6:19–21 NKJV) 19 ¶ “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal;
20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.
21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

The fact that thieves can steal it demonstrates that it is just the sort of thing Jesus was talking about.  And while I am not thrilled to have it stolen, since it is not my real treasure I can't be thrown into despair by its loss either.

As Job said when he had lost far far more than this, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, And naked shall I return there. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; Blessed be the name of the LORD.” (Job 1:21)

Indeed, blessed be the name of the Lord! Amen.