Fleeting Pleasures - The Moth - The Character of Creatures

This is a chapter from the book The Character of Creatures: What the Animal Kingdom Teaches Us About God and His Word.

Fleeting Treasures – The Moth

We are not done with our moth yet. When he is not attacking fire, that moth can be found devouring clothing. In our modern day, with cedar-lined closets and synthetic fibers, this is not as much of a problem as it used to be, but time is still wearing out everything on this planet.

God uses the destruction of the moth to set our affections on heaven:

Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. ~ Matthew 6:19–20

Discussion:

1.      Have you ever had a favorite outfit or a favorite toy wear out? How did that make you feel? Many people live their entire lives just to buy more things, but those things will wear out in relation to eternity. “The things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:18).

2.     What sort of treasure cannot be eaten by moths, or rust, or stolen by thieves? Is your soul such a treasure? How about the praises of God? What about other people’s eternal destiny? How can you lay up those treasures?

3.     Jesus had great riches in heaven, but he laid them all aside to come win a people for his own possession. What can we learn from Jesus’ example from 2 Corinthians 8:9? What does it mean that he wants us to be “rich” when so many Christians in the world are not rich according to the world’s standards? How do you become rich in heaven?

He who dies with the most toys still dies.   ~ Randy Alcorn