We all try to make our lives as comfortable as possible with our many earthly blessings and gifts. But don’t get too comfortable. We merely pass through this life on our way to the next.
All we have and all that we are, we have been given on loan by God. We are entrusted to care for these gifts for a short time until we reach our final destination. Until we come face to face with the Giver of all Good Gifts.
Just what does God ask of us in return for these gifts?
God asks that we be good trustees. God asks us to acknowledge, to wonder, to delight, and to be grateful by putting these many gifts to good use.
How is God’s investment in you paying off? Will you and I have to face God with empty hands?
Here’s a quick inventory? Imagine for a moment that you just have a few hours to live. It’s too late to change anything. You needn’t bother packing because baggage is not allowed. All you’ll be taking are your memories and your own heart – whatever you have become on the inside.
What would comfort you and give you peace at that moment? What memories would make you say, “I’m glad that I lived; it wasn’t wasted. I can’t wait to see God and show what I’ve done with the life I was given?”
What would allow you to say all that?
It wouldn’t be memories of a barn full of stuff, or memories of having built the biggest this, or bought the best of that, or become the most powerful whatever.
Only one kind of memory will warm and comfort you in the end: memories of having made life better, fuller and more beautiful for other people.
Are those the kind of memories that you treasure today? God is waiting to hear from our very lips how we have spent this wonderful gift of life.
We don’t want to show up with a stuffed knapsack of thin and shabby memories.
So this week, as God’s special custodians, let’s invest our Creator’s gifts by sharing and caring for each other.
