Our very treasured things…
Things that testified to the best we could be
Things that bespoke our possibilities
Things that touched our deepest core
The parts of us we’d seldom share
Passionate love letters secreted away
Aunt Stella’s beloved silver serving tray
That medal for valor earned in the war
A wisp of your first love’s hair in a jar
Old report cards full of A’s and B’s
The cracking parchment of your B.A. degree
Old bearer bonds worth a bit of money
A souvenir jar of now darkened honey
A baseball card signed by some bloke
A title deed when you once owned a boat
Packets of fading photos in albums or not
Newspaper articles, resumes, what-nots
So many things we collect like that
Safely tucked away, hoarded in fact
Accumulated parts of our ‘Fool’s Gold’
Our irreplaceable treasure troves
Now, there’s a thing right under our nose
An insignificant thing, we suppose
It doesn’t often make our top ten lists
Not a surprise that it’s always missed
So covered in dust, pushed to the back
On a bookshelf full of novelized dreck
When at our demise most things are trashed
Even given away, sold or just smashed
Typically, miraculously….ironic
Some families consider this thing iconic
That ‘Collection of letters’ we left
Encased in moldering leather, is kept
It notes the family’s births and marriages
All the babies born and even miscarriages
Retains notations on a family far flung
Knotting the ties that have come undone
But the profoundest story within them is deeper
And the family’s wise one knows it’s a keeper
For within is no less than an epic chronicle
Of God and humanity’s alpha-omega crucible
This collection of letters in the form of a book
Calls out to us…dares us to take a look
A fortune’s inside if you watch where you trod
No less than a cache of letters from God!
Within them the storied womb of mankind
Such knowledge as how the very sun shines
Its pages condense the wisdom of ages
Surpassing stargazers, magicians, seers, sages
There’s wisdom God shares with all earthly man
Within them even 7000 mentions of his name:
There in the Old Testament Hebrew…Y-H-W-H
We sound it out ‘Jehovah’, in English
They begin with how he and his son
Who became a ‘master worker’ bar none
Created the earth and man in their image
Then goes on to tell of man’s lineage
The stories inform if one is astute
Tells of prophecies fulfilled, warnings acute
Tells of God’s dismay and disappointment in us
How despite our shortcomings He loved us
The stories all match known places and history
God wanted us to know his purpose’s no mystery
They tell, not when, but how and why man ends
Tells things upon which everlasting life depends
Humbly sitting on that old dusty shelf
Is untold wealth available to each human self
Way beyond the value of old things we imbue
In the huge amount our short lifetimes accrue
But those things pale in ultimate significance
To that Book of Letter’s divine magnificence
Just sitting there waiting, within easy reach
O, the keys to God’s heart it can teach!
By Jahgirl
10/13/2017