The Button Jar

Growing up there was a cupboard in my mothers room filled with treasures. Here she kept all her sewing supplies. For me as a child to get into it I would have to pull over the chair from the corner and climb inside. There was no light so the door stayed open as I sorted and sought the trinkets and baubles of a seamstress. The most wonderful find was the button jar. So big that in order for me to carry it I had to wrap my arms around it, slip from the shelf and hobble to the bed. There I could unscrew the top and upend the contents. They had a paticular smell, sometimes still attached to the clip of material from their original garment. Some metal, some plastic, pearl or abalone. They all had a story. This one was from grandpas coat, this from moms dress. These ones, small and white, many in number, are from the baby dress I wore.
I can pick a handfull of buttons and let them slip through my fingers. There are 3 with anchors on the front. Seven with only one hole. How do you attach these? I sort them in colors, then in piles of size, then match up all that are the same. My mother takes some of these for a dress she is planning to make for my sister. When I see her wearing it I remember the process of choosing the buttons. My contribution to her beautiful dress.
I wonder today at my fascination with the buttons, my time spent with them. (Button jars still appeal to me.) In my little child heart what was I seeking that could be discovered in the depths of that jar? What in life today is eqivilent to my mothers' button jar?
I search sometimes in the depth of my heart for the treasures that God has placed there. Who He made me to be. I find something new and want to show it to others, to Him. To have them see the treasure that He placed there. There is attached to some the bits of experience from where they first came. Some need a bit of polish to show their shine. Others are plain and unremarkable, but still useful in the dress of His glory. Not every one recognizes or acknowleges the treasure, but His eye lights at the child who searches there. It is for His glory that the beauty of this jar of buttons has been saved and set aside. What today is an unsorted mess of colors and shapes and textures will someday be something wonderful. A treasure.