Sharing the Savior’s Story

From Treasure to Ashes

When the Roman city of Pompeii was being excavated, the body of a woman was found mummified in the volcanic ashes of Mount Vesuvius. The way her body lay told a tragic story. Her feet, like so many others of that doomed city, pointed toward the city gate and safety. But even as death rained down upon her, her arms were stretching, straining, struggling backward. She had dropped her bag of pearls. She could not bring herself to keep going without those pearls. And so she died, frozen in an attitude of greed. Her death told where her treasure was. And her treasure had turned to ashes.

Excerpt from The Lutheran Hour broadcast of: March 9, 2003