What Counts in the End

I love the story about a man who wanted to take his money with him beyond the grave. One evening, when he was thinking about death, he prayed fervently about this. An angel appeared to him and said, “Sorry, you can’t take all your wealth with you after death, but the Lord will allow you to take one suitcase. Fill it with whatever you wish.” Overjoyed the man got the largest suitcase he could find and filled it with pure gold bars. Soon afterward he died and showed up at the gates of heaven.

St. Peter, seeing the suitcase, said skeptically, “Hold on, you can’t bring that in here with you.” The man explained that an angel had given him special permission. Peter checked it out with the angel Gabriel and the story was verified. “Okay,” said Peter, “You can bring the suitcase in with you, but first I’m curious, I’ve got to see what you brought.” He opened the suitcase to identify what worldly items this man had considered too precious to leave behind. “I don’t believe it!” said Peter. “You brought pavement?”

The story is funny, and it carries a grain of truth. Many of the things we feel are valuable in this life are not the same things we will find valuable at the end of life.

In the midst of life, we are often focused on what we can accumulate: wealth, titles, power, prestige. But at the end of life, most people tend to be more concerned with the relationships they cultivated – or failed to cultivate: friends, neighbors, and family.

The old bumper sticker, “He who dies with the most toys wins,” is quickly countered by a second bumper sticker, “He who dies with the most toys, still dies.”

The truth is the love, hope, and peace that we share with the world while we are here, live on well beyond us in the lives of those we’ve touched.

At the end of a memorial service I attended years ago, the pastor left us with this challenge:

“When you were born, you cried and the world rejoiced. May you live your life in such a way that we when you die, the world cries, and you rejoice.”

Let us pray: We remember today, O God, that our time here on earth is limited. In the gift of the time that we have left, help us to leave the world a better place through our giving and through our loving. Amen.