I still love to hear the “old songs” we sang in church years ago… not many churches still sing songs like “The Old Rugged Cross.” I always wondered about the part that said, “… till my trophies, at last, I lay down…” I began to think, “What are my trophies?” The trophies are the ones whose lives you have touched… your acts of kindness… that time you saw the poor woman in line at the grocery store with her dirty children, and you paid “ahead” for her groceries. She could never pay you back, but she is one of your “trophies.” The time you bought groceries for the “shut-in.” No one knows about this, except Jesus… I could go on and on… the time you gave God “your last $10.00.” You never knew where your next meal was coming from, but Jesus did… “another trophy.”

We just had one of our Love A Child Luncheons in Melbourne, Florida. We received an offering to help feed the children in Haiti. At the end, when our helpers were collecting the offering, a woman came up to our table. She had an envelope… it had dollar bills and change inside of it. She brought tears to my eyes as she said, “I was here last year and I gave everything I had in my wallet, which wasn’t much, but God blessed it! And here I am again… I am emptying out everything I have to feed the poor.” It was hard for me to hold back my tears… the Lord said, “That’s another trophy.”

When we stand before the Lord someday, we cannot lay down “our new car,” our “bigger house.” We cannot lay down that “new gold watch,” or that “diamond ring.” All we can lay down at the Master’s feet are our “trophies.”

“Let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.” (Galatians 6:9)

Sherry