Amelia

            There once was a little girl named Amelia who spent her summers in a beautiful cabin on a small inland lake in upper Michigan. One of the things that Amelia loved very much was to collect treasures in a small wooden box that she was given for her birthday when she was still very young and had yet to determine its use. But now that she was a bit older, she discovered that box was quite perfect for storing shells she found on the beach and shiny rocks and fossils of plants and small twigs in various shapes of things that she adored. Her parents thought her silly for collecting what they had deemed useless, but that did not stop Amelia from spending her summer days finding just the right things to put in that box. Some days, Amelia would spend the entirety of the evening on the beach and the forest surrounding the cabin. It would be those days when Amelia had yet to find the perfect treasure for her box and soon it would become quite dark. Amelia, being such a small little girl, should be the sort as to be afraid of the oncoming night. However, Amelia rather fancied that time- almost more than her collection of treasures. The sun would begin to set and Amelia would plop down on a grassy spot right before the sandy beach began. She would watch the colors of the sun dance off the water. It seemed to be a new dance almost every night. Amelia loved the sun so much, but sometimes she would remember how she had not found a treasure that day and would become very sad. She would sort through the rocks and twigs in her box and arrange them on the grass in front of her. The remaining light from the sunset would help her to see as she lined up each thing perfectly so. “What a beautiful collection,” Amelia would say as she stared at them all properly placed. “I did not need a treasure today,” she would pick up a twig or a rock and let it pass through each finger, “look at all the beautiful things I have already!” And she would forget about the sunset. Once the sun had finished its dance, it was far too dark for Amelia to see her treasures anymore. And she would focus her attention on something else she rather adored. Something she loved more than the sunset and almost as much as the treasures in that box. Amelia would lay her head back on the grass and felt the cool blades tickle her ears. She would stare upwards at the great black expanse above her. Now, as you know, Amelia is quite a little girl, but she was not afraid. Soon something would catch her eye- it was the moon, making its way above the trees, a dance much different than the sun’s, but a dance all the same. Amelia’s heart would race as she knew her most favorite part was coming. Soon, and before Amelia could count to ten in her head, the black expanse above her would be covered in a multitude of stars. There would be so many that even an adult much older than Amelia could not count them all. Amelia would take a deep breath and feel as though she was floating through a sea of stars. She felt weightless and breathless and unexplainably happy all at once. But soon Amelia would remember her treasures, how they still lay on the grass, in the open. She, having the silly notions of a little girl, would begin to think that maybe a bear or a large bird or something would come out of the forest and snatch all her treasures away. Amelia would sit up quickly to attend to them. She would then turn on the small flashlight that she carried in a knapsack to the beach every day. She would gather her treasures quickly, place them in the box, and pay no more attention to the blanket of stars above her as she walked back to the cottage, the box tucked under her arm.

            One day, a day very unlike the summer days before it, something unexpected happened. Some may say it was a terrible thing, but people believe that most unexpected things are. Amelia was no longer young enough to be considered a little girl, but she still loved that little wooden box very much. The spaces that twigs and rocks and things once occupied were now taken over by love letters and postcards and pictures of beautiful people that Amelia had met on her many adventures. She loved the things in that box very very much and although Amelia was much older, she still loved summers in the cottage on the lake. One summer day (the day of the unexpected that was mentioned before) it was inexplicably cold.  Amelia and her mother and father decided to go into town to see a movie at the theater. On returning from the theater that evening, they came upon the most unexpected and horrific of sites. The small cabin that Amelia had spent many summers in had caught fire. Amelia’s mother and father had lit a fire because it had been so very cold and they had forgotten to properly extinguish it before they had left for town hours before. But that did not matter now. Amelia did not care how it had happened. She only cared that it was happening. Amelia’s mother and father stood by the car, probably fifty feet from the cabin, in complete and utter shock. Soon, Amelia’s mother crumpled into her husband’s arms and Amelia heard her begin to sob. Amelia saw the smoke billowing high above the trees surrounding the cottage and she immediately thought of her box. Without thinking too much about it, as most girls Amelia’s age tend to do, she ran towards the cabin, hoping to salvage the box that contained all the things she loved so dearly. But it was a foolish idea because the cabin was nothing but a pile of ash and wood and nails. Amelia suddenly became very overwhelmed with emotion. She turned her face away from the cabin and began to run. It was getting dark, but she did not care. She liked the way the cold wind felt on her face as she ran closer and closer to the beach. She plopped down on her favorite piece of grass and cried and cried, her body in a posture of complete and utter defeat. Then, through the blur of tears, she saw something so terribly beautiful, something she had almost forgotten about, something she had not really looked at in years. It was the sun. And it was beginning to set. It was orange and yellow and red and colors that Amelia had never seen before, at least she never remembered them being this bright. She could not take her eyes off the water as the light danced off each part of the lake. Soon the dance concluded, as did the tears, and Amelia lay her head back on the grass. She stretched her arms into the great expanse above her, almost as though she was reaching out for something, as each star (more beautiful than she had ever remembered) poked out all over the sky. Amelia filled her lungs with the cold night air. 

And somehow, 

even though she thought she had been doing it her entire life, 

she felt as though she was breathing for the very first time. 

“I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.” 
- C.S Lewis 

For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

[2 Cor. 4:17-18]

Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.
[Colossians 3:2]

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.

[Matthew 6:19-2]