When my dad died, he left only his business and the house.
There was no life insurance policy or any savings. My mom sold the business and
went to work, entering the work force at 58 after a lifetime of being a
stay-at-home mom. When she remarried, she sold the house. Two years later, she
had Alzheimer’s. My mom was in a nursing home for several years at a cost of
$5000.00 a month. Whatever she earned from selling the house paid for the
nursing home, plus we suspect a lot came out of our stepdad’s pocket, but he
would never tell us. My siblings and I had no inheritance other than a few
rings, a few pieces of Delft, and a Hummel collection. Nobody really cared.
Why? Because we had an inheritance that nobody could ever take away from us.
My dad sold eggs door-to-door for most of my growing up
years. My mom stayed at home and raised five kids. Yet somehow, they managed to
put five kids all the way through Christian school. I have no idea how they did
it. My mom made our clothes and we ate a lot of eggs. I had no idea how poor we
were. We never went on vacations and we practically never ate out. We certainly
didn’t shop at Marshall Fields. But I never knew the difference. When my dad
started the Chicken House, things were a little better, but even then I was
expected to pay for my own clothes and stuff I wanted. The point is that even
in our relative (first world) “poverty,” we were rich. We had an inheritance
that we would take to the grave and beyond.
Paul says that anything that isn’t Christ is rubbish. Jesus
tells us not to store up stuff on earth. Anytime we get stuff that we did not
earn, it is a test of character. Back in the sixties, a family in our church
was destroyed because when their mother died, the girls fought over her stuff
and couldn’t reconcile. They wouldn’t even get together for Christmas because
they couldn’t look at each other. Not something I wanted for myself or for my
children. I hope I taught them better than that. While I would like to leave
some things behind for them, I hope that Christ is enough. I hope they learn to
hate the things that destroy families and bring dishonor to Christ.
Recently my mother-in-law passed away and the kids have the
job of going through all the stuff and setting things in order. She would have
hated that herself. The stuff had no hold on her. She was a woman who wanted to
do nothing more in a day than listen to her beloved hymns and hear sermons on
tape from her church. Her heart was already elsewhere. Here are the words to
one of those hymns:
When I
survey the wondrous cross on which the Prince of Glory died,
My richest
gain I count but loss, and pour contempt on all my pride.
Forbid it
Lord that I should boast, save in the death of Christ, my God!
All the vain things that charm me most, I
sacrifice them through his blood.
If I know my
mother-in-law, I know that she wants the same thing for her children that I
want for mine. She wants us to pass the test. She wants Christ to be enough. But
we all want stuff. We do—there is no denying it. We are tied to this earth and
we want to hold on to stuff, especially stuff that reminds us of her. We believe
that this will console us in our grief. The question now is whether we will
come to our senses in time to realize that only one thing will tie us together
for all eternity—Jesus Christ. For the
sake of Jesus Christ, can we sacrifice the vain things that charm us most? Can we pass the test?
