Real Riches

            When I look back on my childhood, I come to the conclusion that we were not financially blessed. In other words, we were probably poor when compared to the people around us. Even in our poverty, my parents never stopped me from doing anything that I wanted to do which included going into music. It all began in the fourth grade with the “tonette” in a class of 35 or so kids playing this little black plastic instrument. That eventually led to a salesman coming to our home and persuading my parents that I had some musical talent that would be sufficient for me to play a real instrument. The clarinet was chosen and my parents paid the $139.00 over the next year. The involvement in the music program at school seemed to send me to social gatherings that I would not have been involved in without this black instrument called a clarinet. Financially, we were not that well off but that didn't seem to matter at that point in my life. In all of these experiences, God was faithful beyond the things of which I was aware. God always provided even when I didn't know what was going on. God was continually orchestrating my life from one day to the next and creating a tapestry that I couldn't even see from my side of life. Later on, I became a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ and that is when the true meaning of riches became apparent to me. The true riches were not associated with the measurements of the world such as a bank account, a car and fancy restaurants. It now became apparent in the spiritual realm. Ephesians 1:3 says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,”

         Ephesus was supposedly a banking capital in the Roman world and so they knew about physical riches. Paul seems to use this comparison to show them the value of spiritual riches which cannot even begin to be measured by worldly standards. The county in which I live tells me each year how much my home is worth and then taxes me on it accordingly. While God has never told me just how much my eternal home is worth, I know it is far above anything that the world can assess. My street in front of my house is paved with a substance called “slurry” which is a mixture of tar, rocks and other matter and then packed down to make a road. Obviously, it is cheap but last rather well. In contrast, my heavenly home is paved with gold. I won't have to worry about electricity as all lighting will be provided by the Lord Jesus Christ. I won't have to come up with taxes for my eternal resting place, nor rent, nor any annual fees. Everything has been paid for. I will have a new name and new white robes and I will be able to sing continually with perfect pitch while watching everything with perfect eyesight and will be able to hear with perfect ears all of the sounds and will no longer be limited to just a small spectrum of sound waves. There is no way in which I can measure the value of my “spiritual blessings” in the heavenly places. One thing for sure however, is that it has all been paid for at Calvary. You may still have problems making ends meet on your budget day to day in this life but if you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, then you are rich beyond measure. Praise God today that He has provided all that we will ever need for all eternity.