Rust Bucket

     On Wednesday, Pat and I took the day off from house projects and went for lunch at Harney’s Tea Shop in Millerton.  It was a lovely treat.
     After lunch, we wandered through the town.  Pat waited patiently as I walked through Millerton’s Antique Center.  I have a feeling that this store is where the saying one man’s junk is another man’s treasure was first said.  The Antique Center is full of old jewelry, clothing, dishes, furniture, and assorted odd items.  There are old blue bromo seltzer bottles, rusty saws, comic books, cast iron iron’s that you have to heat by placing them in a fire, and even the head of a rather unfortunate alligator.
     I love to imagine the people who touched these items before me.  The woman who carried the little beaded bag.  The child who sat on that little wooden chair.  The man who used that wooden shoe shine kit.
     I was near the back of the store when I saw it.  A bucket tucked behind a chest. The bucket was roughly the size of a five gallon paint pail. It had once held ice cream.  What caught my eye was the name emblazoned in a banner across it.  “Johnston’s Ice Cream.”  Johnston is my maiden name.  When I lifted the bucket for a closer look, I realized that the bottom had pretty much rusted through.  Flakes of rust rained down.  At some point, the bucket had been used as a planter.  Bits of dirt clung to the inside.  It had been a long time since it had held any ice cream.  The price was $25.  Twenty-five dollars for a rust bucket.
     I considered carefully.  After all $25 wouldn’t break the bank, but what on earth could I do with it?  It was too far gone to hold anything.  If anyone got scratched by it, they might get a tetanus infection.  I couldn’t think of where this rusty thing would go in my house. Then I pictured the faces of my brother’s if I gifted one of them with a rusty old bucket, even if it had their name written on it.  The only reason I considered purchasing the bucket was because of the name written on it’s rusty sides.  I put it back.
     Jesus said:

"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."  ~Matthew 6:19-21

     The treasure that will never rust is found in the name of Jesus.  The One who paid the price that we could never pay.  The One who loves us to the grave and back again.  The One to whom every knee will bow and tongue confess that He is Lord.
     In the book of Acts, Peter says to the lame man,

“Silver and gold have I none, but such as I have give I thee, in the Name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.”  ~Acts 3:6

     May the Name of Jesus be the banner over your homes and hearts this morning.  May He be your treasure.