Material Goods and Real Wealth

Having moved to a foreign nation, then doing the work to move back to my beloved Florida, I have come to some realizations about stuff.

Material stuff.

It doesn’t matter. It just doesn’t. You know this in the abstract, of course. At least those of us with a modicum of common sense do, but it’s still hard to let go sometimes. Especially when you’ve poured yourself into something, like a house, a homemade bench, a favorite guitar or a food forest.

Letting go of a food forest is particularly painful for a gardener. But you can’t really keep it anyways.

Our bodies age, and eventually we die. The only thing that goes with us is our soul and the souls of those we love, provided they have been chosen to adoption by God through the blood of His Son Jesus Christ.

If you’re a straight-up materialist, believing this world is all there is, then you don’t even believe you get to take your soul with you. But you will, you’ll just be in a very bad place with it.

One of the wonderful things about having children as a Christian, and seeing them be baptized and believe in the saving work of Jesus Christ is that they will go with you. They will be with you here on earth as you make decisions about what things to move and what things to leave behind, and in the end they’ll be with you in eternity, along with your believing ancestors and descendants. That’s real wealth! What a great reason to have a big family!

On Wednesday I shipped five barrels of my earthly possessions back to Florida. Family pictures, books, tools, quilts, clothing, that sort of thing. A lot more was left behind, given away or sold, but the best things mostly are going with us back home, with the exception of a few things including my Taylor guitar, which I sold because it was too hard to take. I also had to leave my Meadow Creature broadfork, my moonshine still, my tablesaw…

…it was a hard bit of sorting, that is for sure. But hey – you can’t take them with you ultimately, so with that in mind it is easier to get rid of them here.

Moving fast is hard with a lot of stuff. We have a big family, so there was a lot of stuff. The kids and Rachel had to make hard decisions as well, letting go and giving away and selling things like appliances and bicycles, plants and toys, clothes and books.

But we’re together. And we will be for eternity. And that’s a wonderful comfort.

It’s real wealth, not material wealth.

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