I guess I’m a little bit of a collector. If you are thinking a collector of antiques or fine art, you’re wrong. I’m more of a collector of empty boxes.

Some people love to hang on to an old sweater that is just comfortable. Sure, it may have a few holes in it and look kind of ratty. Their adult children tell them they should not wear that thing out in public (how would I know this?), but for some reason they just keep wearing it because it feels like it’s a part of them.

When I was a kid I would collect baseball cards and hockey cards. But I wasn’t much of a collector back then because I didn’t keep any of them. I’m sure I had a couple of rookie cards that might be worth some money now. 

When my kids were little I tried to get them into collecting cards. I took them to a trading card shop and they had a whole flat of cards for sale for a few dollars. These were cards that were not worth a penny. 

But I brought them home and gave half to Karlie and half to Michael. They tried to make some sets; they traded cards with each other. I even got them binders with sleeves to display their cards. 

But eventually, just like my childhood card collection, they came back to me and then got tossed out. There was no real value to them, much like my box collection.

Some people collect things of value and they track their increase in value with each year. Other people collect for fun; they simply enjoy it. But then there are those who don’t really know why they collect. They are just compelled to keep collecting. 

I kind of fit into that last category. I can’t tell you why I collect empty boxes, I just do. 

This came to a bit of a head the other day when my wife, Lily, was doing some cleaning and reorganizing in the storage room of our house. She brought out a stack of boxes and wanted to throw them out. 

My first response was, “Don’t do that; they make great gift boxes for Christmas and birthdays.” 

When she objected, I said I would have to go through them. So we did. 

I had kept empty boxes for some products I don’t even have any more. The box outlived the item that came in it. 

As we went through the boxes, I realized that some of them were not even a good sized box for putting presents in. I didn’t have too hard a time parting with almost all the boxes except one. 

It was a box from my latest electronic purchase and I kind of like how it opens and the construction of it. We kept that one. 

I thought we had done really well. The collector had rid himself of his collection. 

Then Lily said she had a whole stack of Apple computer boxes. 

And that’s where I drew the line. “We just keep them,” I said.

Here’s the thing: In some respects God is a collector. He collects people to be His own. He has such a warm love for those in His collection and He puts a high value on their souls. God is a collector of souls. To be part of His collection, we must put our faith in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What kind of a collector are you? Leave your comments and questions below.

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