Trophy case

The National Hockey League recently held its annual All-Star Game in St. Louis.  My son is an avid hockey fan, so we attended the Fan Fair since the price of tickets to the All-Star Game was not in our budget.  The Stanley Cup was the main attraction at the Fan Fair, especially since the St. Louis Blues had won the Stanley Cup the year before. When we arrived at the Fan Fair, however, the line to have your photo taken with the Cup was six hours long. We weren't able to stand in line for that long.  However. we did peek into the room where the Stanley Cup was and saw it.  

I thought Major League Baseball had a lot of trophies, but the NHL has many more.  Per NHL.com, NHL has 21 trophies and all but two of them were on display at Fan Fest, in cases with lights.  

Trophies are made of metal and plastic (and in the NHL, they're made out of wood and metal).  Trophies can be destroyed or stolen.  The Stanley Cup gets passed on to the next team who wins it, so it doesn't stay permanently with the last team that won it.  

For Christians, trophies or medals are not that important.  In 1 Corinthians 9:24-25, Paul writes:  "Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize?  Run so that you may obtain it.  And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown."  In Paul's day, winners of a race received a crown made of laurel leaves.  Those laurel leaf crowns, of course, eventually died.  But Christians, however, receive an imperishable crown, that is, one that does not die.  There is an admonishment from Jesus Himself in the book of Revelation that we should hold fast to our crown so that no one should take it.  

There are three types of crowns that believers will receive.  There is a crown of righteousness for those who love Christ's appearance (2 Timothy 4:8).  There is the crown of life for those who endure temptation and who love Jesus (James 1:12) and for those who are faithful unto death (Revelation 2:10).  Finally, there is the crown of glory which does not fade away, which we receive when the Shepherd appears (1 Peter 5:4).  

But the accolade that is the most important is when Jesus welcomes us to Heaven and says, "Well done, good and faithful servant." Those encouraging words from our Savior are more important than any trophies, medals, or even crowns.  

Thanks for reading!  See you next time!

Diane