Jack Wurm was penniless and jobless. One day in 1949, Mr. Wurm was meandering along a San Francisco beach when he spotted a bottle with a piece of paper in it. Quickly removing the cork and pulling out the note, Jack discovered that it was the last will and testament of Daisy Singer Alexander, heiress to the Singer sewing machine fortune. The note read, “To avoid confusion, I leave my entire estate to the lucky person who finds this bottle and to my attorney, Barry Cohen, share and share alike.”
Fortunately for Jack Worm, the courts accepted the theory that the heiress had written the note twelve years earlier, and had thrown the bottle into the Thames River in London, from where it had drifted across the ocean to the feet of the penniless and jobless Jack Wurm. Mr. Wurm’s good fortune netted him over $6,000,000 in cash and Singer stock! But even though Jack went from being penniless to becoming a multi-millionaire overnight, upon his death he couldn’t take one dime with him into eternity.
For those, however, who have trusted in Christ as Saviour and are living in obedience to God’s Word, our inheritance is secure and eternal. Peter holds forth this promise: “In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade–kept in heaven for you” (1 Peter 1:3-4).
Think about what this inheritance means for us as believers. Try to imagine eternal life, eternal happiness, eternal gratitude, eternal peace, and eternal profit. This sure inheritance is as indestructible as God’s Word itself (1 Peter 1:23). Six million dollars doesn’t even begin to compare with the eternal inheritance that is yours and mine!
July-August 2001