The contents of the small box were poured into a freshly dug hole and on top of that, a Dogwood tree was planted. My wife and our son sang, It Is Well with My Soul. A pastor friend spoke a few words and with the final amen, the private Memorial service for Donna’s mom was over. Two weeks earlier, her mom’s earthly life ended. After an arduous life, filled with struggles and suffering, at 86 years, she entered into eternal rest and peace. Jesus wiped away her tears and she will no longer fear, or cry, or experience any pain, physical or emotional.
I’m not a personal proponent of cremation, but that was her request. I’ve only preached two funerals of people who chose this method. Both times just an urn sat in front of the podium. However, I never thought about the contents until seeing Donna’s mom’s ashes poured out. Then the thought hit me, here was the totality of her material life, a quart of ashes. According to Chemical and Engineering News at the current chemical prices, an adult human body is worth $3.50. Her mom owned nothing except a few clothes. Her former house had been condemned and repossessed by the bank. Yet, even if she had been a multi-millionaire, owning several businesses, with homes around the world, and a personal jet to travel there, nothing would be any different—just a quart of ashes. For we have brought nothing into the world, so we cannot take anything out of it either (1Tim 6:7).
If this were all, there is to life; Solomon’s words would be appropriate to all people. “Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher, “Vanity of vanities! All is vanity” (Ecc 1:2). Even if someone accumulates great wealth like Solomon, they would also say, I hated all my work at which I labored under the sun because I must leave it to the man who comes after me. And who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool? Yet he will take over all my work that I labored at skillfully under the sun. This too is futile (Ecc 2:18, 19 HCSB). However, Christians know this earthly life is not all there is. For those who have placed their faith in Christ and received forgiveness of their sins have the hope of eternal life after their brief existence here. For we know that if our earthly house, a tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens (2 Corin 5:1 HCSB).
When we grasp this truth, it brings a new prospective on life. After we arrived home, I walked out on the deck and looked around. Everything appeared different. I saw our beautiful home, the six-stall horse barn, animals in their pens and in the pasture, and woods filled with wildlife. I remembered the quart of ashes and the admonishment of Jesus. Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal (Mat 6:19, 20). Jesus told the parable of a rich man who had a bumper crop yielding an overflowing amount of grain. So, he built bigger barns. But here was the problem, he said to himself, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years to come; take your ease, eat, drink and be merry” (Lk 12:19). God responded, You fool! That very night he died and God asked, who will get what you have prepared for yourself (v20 NIV)? He had stored up riches on earth for himself but possessed no riches with God.
Some of the happiest people I have met in the world lived in straw covered huts made of mud and sticks mixed with cow manure. They could carry everything they owned in a bag on their head. They owned no earthly treasures. Their joy came from knowing Jesus as their Savior and understanding that floods, droughts, elephants, locus, or rebel tribes could not destroy the treasures they were accumulating in heaven. They knew this life would cease and nature would reduce their bodies to a scattering of dust in the ground. Yet, they had fixed their hope in the knowledge they would then enter into eternal life with Christ. In contrast, are the people whose only hope is their earthly treasures. The saddest people I’ve known spend their life seeking to accumulate wealth. But they end the same as the poorest person on earth —a quart of ashes or dust. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul (Mk 8:36 NIV)?
By her last week, Donna’s mom was asking to let her go and be with Jesus. She knew that her life of sufferings was not worthy to be compared with the glory that was to be revealed to her (Rom 8:18). She had grasped the truth, for our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever (2 Corin 4:17 NLT)!
Sustaining Word for the Week: You are only a quart of ashes or dust, but I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the glorious riches of His inheritance among the saints (Eph 1:8 HCSB).