by Renae Richardson

Created on: July 01, 2009   Last Updated: July 02, 2009

"You can't take it with you"?

Can you?

Many, I am sure, have tried hard to arrange for a U-haul to be hooked up to their casket. What good are investments, acreage, jewelry, yachts,.and time shares to you when you are gone.

I have never seen anyone carry out a transaction from beyond the grave. I am sure many of the readers out there don't wish to see that either.

It is from dust "simple matter of existence" that man has burst forth and to this state he must one day return.

Man is born with ownership of nothing more than his person. Can one assume that over the course of life he shall, or can own more?

It is the blight of human understanding to suppose that possession is synonymous with ownership.

The current sentiment is I have earned, it has come to me, and therefore it is mine. How can the obtainment of objects support claims of ownership?

It does not!

We have obtained air in our lungs but we have no ownership of the air we breathe.

We are merely custodians. We are granted the use of all these things that surround us. It is upon our departure from life that these items are passed on to another.

When our spirits no longer possess this weakened frame then our namesakes are cared for by others; those with whom we may choose and even some whom we do not. We have no control over those factors.

It is hard to fathom this truth. The enlightening of this truth leaves many with a sense of powerlessness.

King Solomon spoke solemnly albeit passionately about this very subject. He said,

"Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, nothing was gained under the sun.For a man may do his work with wisdom, knowledge and skill, and then he must leave all he owns to someone who has not worked for it." (Ecclesiastes 2: 11, 21, NIV)

Yes, this is truth!

One day all that we claim as ours will be left to another and it will be to one who did not work for it. It is we who have earned it. That is an issue of life.

We need not be disheartened.

Those things are our possessions while we have care of them.

However, it is more appropriate to reason that we have been given charge of these things. We are to be good stewards and work to preserve the things we have obtained that others may enjoy there use as well.

In acknowledging such we become better caretakers and understand the frail line that is drawn between prosperity and impoverishment. Just as easily as we have received, we will one day relinquish.

Yet, we rejoice in the delight of knowing that we have earned or been given an opportunity to have in our possessions the things which we give our namesake.

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