Beyond The Here And Now

All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is by his great mercy that we have been born again, because God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. 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

THE OLD COUPLE had lived very modestly all their lives. They never collected many possessions, and they never threw out things that still had some wear in them. When they didn’t need certain items anymore, they put them into a basement-level garage until someday when they might be needed or wanted by the couple or their children.

But the couple never thought about the leaky foundation and dampness in their basement. When they died and their children cleaned out the basement, the pile of rust-corroded and decayed furniture, tools, and other household goods filled a good part of the driveway. Not much of an inheritance!

The inheritance most people leave or receive is all here on earth—where it will end up, eventually, in a pile of trash or destroyed.

But this verse promises us something beyond the here and now, something lasting, something eternal. As we live for God, we have an inheritance in heaven—the inheritance of salvation and being the Father’s child, the inheritance of rewards for what we’ve done here on earth.

Where’s your focus? On enjoying and building an earthly inheritance? Or on an inheritance that will never decay?