For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. 1 Timothy 6:7
Someone once quoted this text as they tried to convince a hard old miser to contribute some money to a good cause. ‘You can’t take it with you,’ they told him. The miser retorted, ‘Then I ain’t going!’ Although we laugh at such foolishness, that attitude is far more prevalent than we realize. Even Christians can get so caught up in the value of their possessions that we forget how fleeting and difficult to hold they are. Like you, I have some things that are pretty important to me, including some things that I would not ever want to lose. And yet, I will lose them. That is a certainty.
For many years, a small .22 rifle hung in the kitchen of my grandparents’ home, along with one or two other guns. But my grandfather is long gone, and, thanks to the kindness of my brother, that little rifle now belongs to me. As I look at that gun, and as I carry out some necessary restoration work on it, I realize that my days of owning it will not be long. So, I have already considered who I want to pass that gun on to among my grandchildren. But regardless of who eventually owns it, that person must someday give it up, too. Such is the nature of everything that exists around us; everything that arrives in our hands must eventually slip through and be gone from our grasp. Every baby is born with its fists clenched to grasp things, and every old man dies with open hands that have released every possession ever grasped. If we would retain anything, we must look past the temporary and the temporal, and lay hold on the eternal.
The tragic story of the rich man who landed in hell (Luke 16:19-31) reminds us that memories endure into eternity. If the rich man in perdition could remember how he in his lifetime receivest his good things, surely we in the Glory will remember many things from this life. Because there will be no tears in Heaven, we cannot recall the griefs and sorrows and losses. But precious memories will surely remain with us of the blessings and goodness of our God. The more we appreciate these things here, the more we will appreciate them there. Because we must all stand before the Judgment Seat of Christ (2 Corinthians 5:10), the value of our service and devotion to our Lord must also endure into eternity. We will receive the things done in our bodies, according to that we hath done, whether it be good or bad. This reminder ought to make us more serious about our lives, to cause us to make sure that what we do is good. In 1 Corinthians 3, we are told in verse 11 that there is a great and eternal foundation laid, and in verse 12, we are reminded that we build on that foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble. Then in verse 13, we are reminded that only one type of building material will endure, because all of our works will be tested by fire. Then, verse 14 announces that there is a reward for works that endure the fire. So, while we can take nothing out of this world, we can make preparations in this world to have something of value in the next.
How much do we value what we have in this life? How much do we value what we can have in the next? -Jim MacIntosh