Last night I awoke and having just enjoyed a lovely day with my husband, and having settled in a bit more into the home we have been in for about a year, a sobering thought came to mind. What if this night, the Lord, were to require of me my life and with it an accounting?
It was then that I remembered the story that Jesus told as was recorded in Luke 12. It is the story of a rich man whose ground yielded much. Thinking he didn’t have enough storage room, he decided to pull down the barns he had so that he could build bigger ones. Then he told himself that he would be able to relax as he would have many goods to last him for years. He would be able to “eat, drink and be merry.” The only thing was, God, called him a fool and required that night, his soul.
Jesus was teaching his followers about covetousness; about storing up treasures for the sake of satisfying themselves while in the meantime, neglecting to be rich toward God. “Our lives do not consist in the abundance of our possessions”, he told them.
In our world of abundance, it is so easy to want bigger or better, to feel content in the accumulation of our possessions, to forget how brief and fleeting our lives are, and to have false security about our lives.
Thank-you Holy Spirit for the reminder. Help me, as my dad used to say, to humbly ask you to “teach me to number my days so that I can gain a heart of wisdom.” Keep me aware that my life is a gift from you. Teach me how best to be rich toward God while grateful for the many gifts he has given me.
Grace and peace to you.