this grand illusion

St Asterius of Amasea talks to us today in A Year with the Church Fathers. He tells us that one of the main reasons we should invest in eternal wealth is because the wealth we have in this life is not only temporary, it's an illusion. We don't even own the things we think we do. Our houses, our cars, even our health... they will all slip out of our grasp one day. We will lose everything we think we have in this life.

That would be a grim and dark realization, if it weren't for the good news that comes with it. Because the bad news is that we will lose everything in this life, but the good news is that we're finding that out soon enough to do something about it. We can make wise decisions now, while there is still time. We can invest in people... the one "commodity" that we DO get to take with us into eternity. Like Schindler, at the end of the movie, when he realizes that his car, his golden pin, everything he owns... could have been one more human being saved, if he had been wiser. If he had only stored up MORE of his treasure in what lasts forever. All of his wealth evaporated at the end of the war. But the people whose lives he saved live on, and they are the treasure he'll keep forever.

This lesson is one that we should take to heart, now, while we can still trade some of our perishable wealth for things that last forever. We can still make those wise decisions.

God, please help us to invest eternally.