If anything, today’s readings remind us that; ‘You can’t take it with you’. As much as we may enjoy our possessions or the opportunity to save our income for that rainy day, when the Lord calls us we just go as we are taking nothing out of the world, just as we brought nothing into the world. It is or can be a sobering thought. The ancient Egyptians and other who filled their tombs with ‘stuff’ thought that they could take their property with them into the afterlife. The discoveries made over the last few centuries proves they were wrong. What we have in this life is for our enjoyment and satisfaction what we are offered by Christ in the next world needs no goods and chattels to accompany us for what could be more fulfilling that to be eternally in the presence of God.
Both Paul and Luke quoting Jesus reminded the Colossians and the first century followers of Jesus that no matter how much you might want to take it with you, you can’t and that you are better off sharing what you have and helping others than filling your barns with perishable things. Enjoy what you have and give thanks to God for it, share what you have and seek to improve the lives of others and know that it is better to do so in this life than to think you can take it to the next!