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Many of us have seen the Mary Poppins movies and recall the delightful music, dancing, and colorful animation in them. Among the many favorites is the scene late in the movie where Dick VanDyke talks, sings, and dances telling the children about the importance of deposits of Tuppence they ought to be making in his bank. It wasn’t very much money, only two English pennies at the time, but to the children who wanted to feed the birds that would be a sacrifice. 

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That scene was more memorable in Mary Poppins Returns since Dick Van Dyke is 91 when he hops on his desk and does his dance steps in this movie. It was a marvel to see since few could do this at his age.

The challenge points to the truth that deposits are grand things to have but mean a sacrifice of something to accomplish. Little wonder that so many of us find it easier to pull out a plastic card to handle a need or desire than to set aside a deposit to cover that debt when it will be due. But deposits are not just about money.

To be able to be healthy at any age and especially as we age we need to make deposits into our health. When we are young we can be tempted to take for granted that we can always climb a set of stairs easily, walk without fear of tripping, and have the scales show very little changes in our weight. We may not lay a foundation of regular exercise, eat a healthy diet, and stay up late night after night. We may not be ready to sacrifice the time to do them or deny ourselves food and treats we love for some future goal of better health. That is also true if we take pleasure in more dangerous pleasures like smoking, alcohol, speeding as we drive, or taking recreational risks just for the fun of the attempt.

Those habits cannot prevent us from aging but they tend to slow the processes that creep up each decade no matter what genetics we may have inherited. Sacrificing money to save some from the time we are very young may not appeal to us and prevent us ever needing more than we saved but it will be a godsend if we someday lose a job or have an unanticipated storm tear off our roof.

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Deposits relationally are also crucial to provide us with what we will need to live a satisfying meaningful life. Those deposits can only come through intentionality with the people who are in our life. We can’t be self-absorbed so that we never listen to the hearts of someone dear to us or fail to recognize a need that may not even be spoken. We can’t remain the center of our world and make such deposits that provide connection, fellowship, support, and friendship over the years. It means asking questions beyond  clichés like ‘how are you’  without sometimes even casually listening to the other person and miss what matters in the life of another.

Deposits are also needed in our spiritual lives. When life is easy and not too many challenges are interrupting us, we can skip that part of us as well. The quiet time we planned to have slips out of our routine and being quiet enough to utter a prayer of gratitude or concern for someone else may not cross our minds if we are busy with our  own little world. Picking up a Bible to read can take too much time from something else on our agenda whether it is sleeping longer, handling something on our ‘to do’ list, playing a game on our phone, or deciding that our physical health priorities are the only things that matter.

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A habit that tracks us all is not to remember that all those deposits that we sacrifice to make happen when we are young, life is going swimmingly, and relationships are easy are the very things we will need when life’s inevitable difficulties come our way. Sadly, the first time we get a reminder when we are in a tough spot doesn’t give us immunity not to let it happen again. Focus is harder than ever in the technological age we live in.

That deposit of a little extra money will help when a job loss comes along or we need an unexpected car repair. It will help when our child wants to play an instrument or sports or needs braces that our insurance doesn’t cover. It will matter when illness comes knocking at our door or a long list of other things we will face.

The deposit of health habits may mean that we avoid catching every virus that comes around or have milder cases of them. It might mean we don’t keep adding pounds each decade that sets us up for a variety of health issues or keep us from enjoying our grandchildren.

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Those spiritual deposits that may be the hardest to develop are the ones that will help keep us going when real events happen that mean we can’t do them as we once did. A scripture verse will come to mind. We’ll recall God’s faithfulness and gain hope. We’ll know that even in hard or dark times God is with us because we have seen it in the biblical stories we already know and in the lives of others in our relational circle. 

Relational deposits will yield others to come alongside us when loss of any kind stops us in our tracks. They’ll be there because of the foundation we invested in all those easy days because we listened, remembered their stories, and what mattered to them.

Deposits represent what we treasure whether it be money, health, people, time, or anything else. Time on this earth is limited for each of us and none of us know how much we have.

What deposits will we make today?

Photo by Pam Ecrement of Boom Lake in Alberta, Canada