“As he came forth of his mother's womb, naked shall he return to go as he came, and shall take nothing of his labour, which he may carry away in his hand.” Ecclesiastes 5:15
We toil and labor for things created by our hands that we can’t take with us. Sure, like the Pharaoh’s of Egypt you can build elaborate tombs to store your stuff for the afterlife, but then robbers or archeologists just come and take it away. No, you can’t take it with you. Money, material goods, cars, boats, stocks and bonds all stay behind and you leave this world the same way you came into this world – without anything.
So, why are we here? What’s the purpose? Our purpose starts with learning about the world around us. As we learn and mature we endeavor to make a difference – hopefully a good difference. Some have children, and some raise other people’s children. We work and try to do the best we can. If we store away money and stuff, we are leaving it is an inheritance, because again, we can’t take it with us. Luckily, stuff isn’t everything. We also leave our legacy of friendships, kindness, memories and experiences, souls won to Christ through our testimony. Unfortunately, we can also leave a legacy of hatred, bitterness, violence, and a trail of lost souls that we never witnessed too. All we leave behind is an inheritance of memories and experiences, and we take with us only the inheritance of those memories and experiences. I’m preaching to myself, because on an almost daily basis I fail at leaving those good memories and experiences. It’s something to continue to work on.
Money & Stuff – We come into this world with nothing and leave this world with nothing.
Memories & Experiences – We leave them with those who knew us and take them to our final destination in the presence of God or the eternal Lake of Fire.