"Inheritance"

We sometimes grieve what we have lost,

For better or for worse,

It makes us sometimes count the cost,

Of blessing or of curse.

The day we laid my daddy low,

Went by the old home place,

The time and all the work we spent,

Now gone to life’s fast race.

I looked across that old barb wire,

At pastures watered well,

I thought it always would be ours,

And we would never sell.

But life will have its twists and turns,

The old ranch had to go,

And as I stared across that fence,

What I had come to know,

That what I thought I’d give to those,

Ones standing there with me,

They could never have this place,

Though I thought meant to be.

Something they’d inherit,

When my days on earth were through,

But to someone else’s kids,

It would go, it’s true.

What do I have to leave them,

I asked the Lord to say,

I do not have a ranch so fine,

Nor home sweet home to stay.

He said kind words I won’t forget,

Said the treasure that was real,

Was seeds that I had sowed in them,

To help my children feel,

That the Good Lord really loves them,

And heaven is their home,

And ‘cause they put their trust in Him,

They’d never be alone.

The cattle on a thousand hills,

To Him so much belongs,

And that is our inheritance,

When He rights this world’s wrongs.

Next time you look across the fence,

And see what might have been,

Remember your inheritance,

And give Him praise right then.

“Now we live with great expectation, and we have a priceless inheritance- an inheritance that is kept in heaven for you, pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change and decay.” (1 Peter 1:4, NLT)

Most of our earthly expectations are not beyond the reach of change and decay. When circumstances change, and they will, what we expected to happen changes, too. We discover that we cannot control everything, and even with the best intentions, our hopes slip away. But we have been promised a different kind of future inheritance that is eternal and certain. Nothing that happens in this world can steal it, and the guarantee is made by the One who will never lie or disappoint us. Life changes for the better when we are fully assured of our inheritance. Believe it.

Lord, help us live with great expectation because we are certain of our inheritance in You, in Jesus’ name we pray.

Art by Keith Batcheller, keithbatcheller.com. Used by permission. Thanks, Keith, and God bless you.