I was in a cold sweat and felt sick.  I’d been busy canning beans, pears, applesauce, peaches, pickles and salsa.  I was carrying a box of canning jars into the house on one hip and our little four-month-old daughter on the other.  As I walked across the cement patio to the back door, they shifted—jars and baby.  I knew I could save only one.  I looked at the jars; I looked at our baby.  I saved the jars.  I awoke to the thud of the baby hitting the cement.  It wasn’t even real, but it might as well have been.  The dream stayed with me and haunted me for so long that I suspected there was a message in it.  The meaning was obvious:  something was out of balance.  I came to suspect it was my priorities that were out of order.

            Canning certainly has its virtues—no doubt about it.  Bottling jam, fruits, and vegetables is a worthwhile and valuable skill; it’s also economical and healthy.  I think the author of Proverbs included ‘canners’ when he said:  “Who can find a virtuous woman?  Her price is far above rubies.  She is like the merchants’ ships; she bringeth her food from afar.  She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness.” (Proverbs 31:10, 14, 27) 

            My problem then wasn’t what I was doing, it was what I was letting it replace.  I was guilty of pawning the baby off on whoever would hold her, letting her cry too long so that I could finish another batch of pears, and wishing she’d sleep a little longer so that I wouldn’t be bothered. 

            My armload of canning jars and baby were both valuable, just as many of our choices today; but in my dream I chose to save the thing least valuable for the thing that seemed most pressing.  This parable replays itself again and again as I am faced with choices, “Is the thing most pressing most valuable?”

            Demands will fill our day and one of the exciting things about this world is the numerous opportunities and choices available—grocery stores, car lots and clothes racks are full of options and it can take hours to make a selection.  There are also numerous requests and demands on our time; the choice is ours and our decision sifts us.  “Don’t trade what you want most for what you want now” is an old adage that still fits.