“I Must Have Left It On the Roof of My Car”

by Allen Ketchersid

Not long ago, PBS reported a story of the recovery of a missing Stradivarius violin.

The violin had been owned by UCLA and had been placed in the charge of a faculty member who was also second violinist in the university’s string quartet. When the violinist reported the priceless instrument missing, authorities were suspicious that he had stolen the violin. He, however, said that he thought he’d put the violin on the top of his car when he was loading groceries on his way home from a concert. He believed he must have driven off, forgetting the Stradivarius.

Many were skeptical of the violinist’s story, but decades later his account was confirmed when the instrument showed up at a music shop to be tuned. The present owner said he had bought the violin from someone who had found it lying beside an on-ramp to a Southern California freeway. The musician had indeed sped off with his ice cream, leaving his treasure behind.

You’d think if you owned a Stradivarius you’d guard it day and night and never let it out of your sight. You’d certainly never stick it on top of the car in the grocery store parking lot.

But we all get busy, and life does intrude on us, even on the stewardship of the most priceless gifts we possess. We’ve got to eat, and we’ve got to shop, and it becomes easy to move priceless things out of the way just long enough to get the groceries into the trunk.

Greed and avarice weren’t responsible for the loss of that priceless violin. In reality, busyness and carelessness ditched it.

Take a good long look at your life. Inventory your priceless possessions. Where are they? Are they cherished, nurtured, and protected? Is their potential benefit being realized by you? Find your mate, your children, your parents and other loved ones. Rediscover your sisters and brothers in the Family of God. Treasure your hope in the Lord and acquire a deeper relationship with him.

Are you too busy for any of these? Have any been accidentally ditched along the way?

We can easily get so caught up in immediate objectives that we ignore the long-term, true treasures. Remember Jesus’ simple yet profound principles, the principles he taught us to live by:

“Man does not live by bread alone.”

“Your Father knows that you need all these things; seek first his kingdom.”

”Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

“Lay up treasures in heaven.”

Better check. Is there a treasure about to slide off the roof of your vehicle?