It is pretty in pink at my house right now. We have two little girls with birthdays that are less than a month apart. We have celebrated them at a couple of joint birthday parties this year for separate small groups of family(so that we can stay safe in a time of COVID). The oldest daughter got to pick the theme for the parties. And we wanted to make sure that it was a great atmosphere (probably trying to compensate for how different the experience would be). There is tulle everywhere, princess crowns, castles, and balloons. There are even scenes of princess houses and woods filled with furry animal friends. She even picked out some fun party hats. Well...everything pink and princessy comes covered in glitter. It's all over my house. It's stuck to the baby's head. I'm finding glitter in the bathroom and even in the dogs hair. He is decidedly pretty with gold glitter in his fur, but he carries it all over the house.
However, as I tried to vacuum it up, but was somehow ending up with more on the floor than before, I realized that it was stuck to my shoes and I was tracking it behind the vacuum.
Then I got to thinking. That glitter is like my heart. Whatever is in my heart will flow out of my mouth and end up in every aspect of my life. Jesus talks about this very phenomenon in the gospels, and I like the way that Matthew writes it out.
Matthew 12:33-37
"33 “Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit. 34 You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of. 35 A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him. 36 But I tell you that everyone will have to give account on the day of judgment for every empty word they have spoken. 37 For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.”
Just like that glitter ended up everywhere once I touched it and it touched me, that's how good and evil work in our hearts as well. Once we allow them into our lives they get into every aspect of who we are. Jesus knew that. That's why he said the words that we find recorded here in Matthew. In Proverbs 4:12 we mind the author telling us to guard our hearts for it is the wellspring of life. I believe what they meant was that whatever is in our hearts will be how we live.
If you fill your heart with the truth of God's word and the love of Jesus, then that's what our lives will be. But, if we allow our sin, anger, bitterness, and every other fleshly distraction to infiltrate our hearts, then our lives will reflect that too.
In Matthew 33 tells us that if the tree is good then the fruit is good...if the tree is bad then so it the fruit. That means that we will bear fruit not matter what. So, we need to ask ourselves if we want to produce good fruit or bad. If our answer doesn't match our lives, then we need to look within and make adjustments accordingly.
Our hearts and lives, just like that glitter in my house, will spread and spread with every person we encounter. How we touch people's lives around us will affect people far beyond our reach. You never know when your good, or bad, heart will change someone else's life. I want to store up good in my heart so that my life glitter will make this world a better place. A place that gets the opportunity to meet Jesus through me. How about you?
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