When All is Said and Done
I just finished updating the “Important ‘After the Fact’ documents to make matters easier to be closed and dispersed” for my children. No, I am not planning a sooner than later departure from earth to heaven, but in the grand scheme of God’s plans, I want to help alleviate family concerns should the “sooner” come before the “later”. I texted my children: “My house is in order — just in case! This binder holds all the info you’ll need if I get to go to heaven before you do. It is in my top left dresser drawer in my bedroom. Just want you to know where it is just in case. Not being morbid, and truly believe I’m here on assignment, but just wanted you to know you’ll have everything in one place you’ll need.” Along with the text, I offered them the below photo which suggests a great way for me to stay on with them! LOL!
When my graduation day occurs, I hope I will have left them the best of me which is far more than what money can buy. An inheritance is what we get for being part of a family that’s rightfully ours. I am the sole survivor of my immediate family. Grandparents, parents, siblings, uncles, and aunts have long departed for heaven. If I were expecting a monetary inheritance from any of them, I would be sorely disappointed. I came to terms long ago that I wasn’t going to be wealthy in things that money can buy. I’m okay with that.
It’s not the things or treasures or inheritance — the tangible things that make us. What makes us, and the legacy we received and what we leave to our children, are the things that money could never buy. The influence of my passed family members are the values they left me of a living legacy of honesty, integrity, love, faith, and compassion. The legacy of putting faith in God during the best and worst of times, to give, to suck it up when hurt or offended, to trust in God’s plans for life and to pass on to my family something far more than the things that can be bought.
The Bible says, “Now we live with great expectation, and we have a priceless inheritance — an inheritance that is kept in heaven for you, pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change and decay” (1 Peter 1:3-4). Such good news! I AM in line for a “priceless inheritance” and so are you! But even better news — we don’t have to wait one minute longer. We have concrete reasons for hope because God’s “will” has already been read. We can be living in the riches of His grace right now.
What a shame it would be if we went through our entire lives, and didn’t know the inheritance available to us as children of God. Our loving Father didn’t write a document that He put away in a top drawer or a safety deposit box and someday we’ll find out what the document says about our inheritance. He offers it to us now and for all eternity in His written Word. We can already be enjoying the benefits of peace, joy, hope, love, overcoming faith, and walking in confidence in Whose we are, and best of all — living eternally with Him!
Thank God, we are not those who live without hope. We are the rich kids of our Father Who paid the price for our abundant life right here. Right now! We just moved from the thanksgiving season to this most wonderful time of the year, Advent. Advent, the anticipation (and the knowing) of not just the coming of our Lord as a baby in a manger at Christmas, but our Lord and Savior Who reigns on High Who left us with “above and beyond what we could ever ask of think” inheritance. That inheritance includes a mansion in heaven and eternity with Him!