Inheritance

 

 

 

Life and the treasures and good things of this world are all only a finite inheritance given to all people. Haunted by the impending loss and the mad desire to gain the largest share of this inheritance we grasp everything we can and tear each other apart to gain more. Sadly we do this when there is an infinite blessing offered by the love of God expressed in the work of Jesus on the cross. Eternal life in paradise and peace with God and with each other is the unending, overflowing gift that so many reject. Yet our lives pass like mist on a morning breath and the world’s resources cannot keep up with humanity’s capacity to swell in population - all the while greedily hoarding wealth and excess. Can you not see the writing on the wall? (MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN – the words of smaller and smaller value in Daniel 5). The diminishing numbers that count down to the end? Can you not see your own death and the creep of age and weakness and loss in your own life that points to the finititude of what you have? 

But now take heart and hear the words of Christ spoken to those he loves:

 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

 “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.

 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

(Matthew 6)

Are you an infinite inheritor in Christ?