On September the 1st, Karen and I made a second trip to Indiana to handle my late sister’s matters, this time to pack up the contents of her 10′ x 10′ storage unit into a 16 foot rental truck. After a couple nights in Indiana, we hit the road for a 2,290 mile drive back to our home in California. Here, we would unload everything into our living room (and family room, and back porch, and. . .) for a safer and more leisurely opening and sorting.
As we hit the road, Karen and I talked about all the stuff my sister had left behind when she passed in mid-July. For the most part, we had no idea what all was in the many boxes, plastic bins, and garbage bags, except that much of it had probably been saved by my father, who had himself passed away in Indiana seven years earlier.
Karen summed up the situation with the true comment, “Well, you can’t take it with you.” But as soon as she said it, we looked at each other, and both blurted out at the same time, “We ARE taking it with us!”
Somewhere in the middle of the six-day journey (we rested on the seventh day), as we barely outran a sudden SNOW storm in Wyoming and dodged hurricane-force winds of 100+ miles per hour in Salt Lake City, I began to wonder whether we should have just abandoned the storage unit and waited for it to appear on the show, Storage Wars, instead.
Now, as we go through the unbelievable quantity of papers, clothes, and various objects, we’re glad we didn’t just abandon it all, since we are finding some incredible family-history items, including old pictures, antique jewelry, watches, and even newspapers from the early 1900s. It’s really a journey back in time, made possible because, well, “You can’t take it with you.” Now we have to figure out what can be saved and how, because we, like our deceased family members, can’t take it with us, either, when our time comes. I’m thinking . . . maybe an Eddy Family Museum or Eddy Presidential Library (don’t laugh; we’re not too old for one of us to be President; we’re still just in our 60s!).
The truth that “we can’t take it with us” when we die has prompted me to ask the question, “Is there anything we can take with us when our time comes?” And after some study and consideration, I believe the answer is “Yes! There are some things we can and will take with us.” But what are they?
First of all, we know that our material possession are NOT on that list. That’s why there are many jokes about people who tried to take their wealth with them: from the dying guy who begged his wife to bury his money with him when he died, so she wrote a check and stuck it in his coffin; to the guy who cashed in all his money and bought a block of solid gold, only to be asked by St. Peter why he brought a paving brick with him; to the 1938 romantic comedy (and Academy Award winner), You Can’t Take it With You. As King Solomon lamented in Ecclesiastes 2:18-23, you can work hard your whole life to gather wealth, only to have to leave it to those who come after you when you die. Many tombs, from ancient times to the present, are filled with what archaeologists call, “grave goods,” which were placed there to assist the deceased in the “next life.” Of course, since those goods are still in the tombs, it just proves the old saying, “You can’t take it with you.”
So what can we take with us?
1. Our souls/spirits. Theologians debate over the meaning of those terms, and whether they refer to the same thing or not. I’ll use “spirit” to refer to that essential non-material part of our being that defines us as a living being made in the image of God. At the moment of death, our spirits depart our bodies and pass into what we call, “the intermediate state.” Some believe that this temporary period is one of unconscious sleep (“soul-sleep”), but I believe the Scriptures teach a period of consciousness when we are either with Christ and joyously awaiting his return, or held awaiting our judgment apart from him. Evidence for this comes from Jesus’ parable of Lazarus and the rich man, in which the two are found after death to be in two separate places, “Abraham’s side”* and Hades. Both are conscious and in very different conditions (Luke 16:19-31). Further evidence comes from John’s revelation in which he sees the souls of the martyred under the altar in heaven (Revelation 6:9). Also, when 1 Thessalonians 4 describes Christ’s return, it says, “God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep (that is, died)” who will then be raised (resurrected). Since the bodies of the dead will not rise until the resurrection, how can they be with Christ already, unless it is by their spirits?
2. Our bodies. “Wait, pastor, didn’t you just say our spirits leave but our bodies remain? After all, those same tombs holding burial goods are also holding remains of people’s bodies. So how can you say we will take our bodies with us?” Okay, you’re right . . . but so am I, because I’m not speaking of the intermediate state following our bodily deaths, but to the eternal state after the great resurrection of the dead when Christ returns. On that day, the cemeteries will empty and the sea will give up its dead (Revelation 20:13) and our spirits will be reunited with our resurrected bodies so that we will be whole again. But what about our bodies; will they be the condition they were in at our death? Will we be missing parts, suffering from diseases, needing glasses or wheelchairs or oxygen tanks? No, the word of Scripture is clear that we will be made perfect. 1 Corinthians 15 is a wonderful chapter that describes our resurrection to come, stating, “For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality” (verse 53). Paul describes our death to be like the planting of a seed that is sown in weakness and dishonor but then sprouts in strength and honor. Our Creeds attest to this faith when we confess, “I believe in the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.” There’s more we would like to know, such as what we will look like, what “age” we will appear to be (I’m guessing 30), and what abilities we will have (will I be able to fly?), but Scripture tells us all we need to know: that we will be raised to eternal life, and that we will enter into the joy of the Lord. In the words of the old gospel hymn, “it’s good enough for me!”**
3. Our memories. This is a little more touchy to assert, since all of us have memories we treasure and want to hold onto, while at the same time having horrible memories we would just as soon forget. Will we remember all our hurts, all our sins, all our mistakes and embarrassments, along with all our joys and blessings? The Bible isn’t clear about this, but I think there are some conclusions we can draw. Since Christ promises to wipe every tear from our eyes (Revelation 21:4) and replace our mourning with joy and laughter (James 4:9, Lamentations 5:15), we can assume that at a minimum, whatever pain or regret our memories cause will be removed. If we do remember, we will see things from a now sinless perspective, and understand God’s purposes in what we went through. We will be so grateful and joyful to be with the Lord that any memories of our sins will just cause us greater joy at God’s mercy and forgiveness. Likewise, I believe we will recount the many blessings which God gave us in our earthly lives, which will result in our greater adoration and worship of the One who blessed us. Will we remember our faith, those special times Christ touched our lives, and our loved ones? Yes, I believe we will. Will you remember my sermons or my blogs? Probably not . . .
4. Our crowns. What we do here and now in this life will impact eternity. Our lives impact the lives of others, whether we give them life through having children, or saving lives from danger, or taking them by accident or on purpose. The immediate effect can be seen, but there can be eternal consequences as well. When we raise a child in the faith, teach someone about Christ and they believe, or do a good work that brings glory to God, we affect lives not only here, but potentially forever. The Bible promises eternal life as a gift to those who believe, and says “there is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1), but at the same time says we will stand before the Judgment Seat to give account for all we have done (2 Corinthians 5:10). This accounting by those who are saved by faith will be to reveal and reward the good works which we have done (which of course are also by God’s grace and power). Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 3 that we will receive a reward for any works that are built on the one sure foundation of Jesus Christ.The degrees of reward will vary, as they should: for I expect Christian martyrs to receive greater reward than I will; but there is no competition or boasting, only joy at what such works accomplish. Christ told of rewarding those who have been faithful with what they were given (Luke 19), and Paul speaks of his converts in the churches of Philippi and Thessaloniki as his crowns: “For what is our hope or joy or crown of boasting before our Lord Jesus at his coming? Is it not you?” (1 Thess. 2:19).
Therefore, I think of our rewards as crowns bestowed by Christ as signs of the eternal blessings he has done through us. And what will we do with those crowns? Will we parade around those streets of gold, strutting and showing them off (“My crown’s bigger than your crown!”)? Naw, we’ll do what the elders do and throw them at the feet of the One who gave us those crowns, Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, to whom be all praise and honor and glory and thanks (Revelation 4:9-11). For whatever we accomplish here that will be of eternal merit will be done by God’s will and by his power, so the rewards truly belong to him.
So go ahead and live your life, thanking God for that life and doing the good works he created you to do (Ephesians 2:10), knowing that you CAN take everything that is truly good and matters to God with you!
Now, may the Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you, the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Amen.
Read: Ephesians 2:8-10, 1 Corinthians 3:12-15, Revelation 4
* ESV version; older translations call it the “bosom of Abraham.”
**Gimme That Old Time Religion, an African-American folk gospel song dating from 1873. Published by Charles Davis Tillman in 1889.