You Can’t Take It With You...

Everything you own today will one day belong to someone else...

That truth hit me while holding my vintage watch from the 1946— a Hamilton with a gold-filled case and a beautiful mechanical heartbeat that STILL ticks, and keeps perfect time 80 years later. I found it in a bag of watches from an antique store a few years ago...

 ...and as I was looking at it early this morning I started think think about who wore it first.

Was the Hamilton worn by someone on a cross-country train...

...or was it put away quietly in a dresser next by a solider before he left for World War 2 ?

Maybe it ticked through long workdays or was pulled out and checked during a long church service.

I wonder how many people wore this watch before it found me.

I feel like these older watches tell more than just time—they tell stories.

And the hands on their dials have outlived the hands that once wound them...

It’s a quiet reminder...What we hold now will someday pass to someone else.

The car in your driveway.

The clothes in your closet.

The things you obsess over protecting.

Someday, they’ll be sold in a garage sale, donated to a thrift store, or tucked into the back of someone's closet in a box.

Ecclesiastes 3:1 says, “To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven.”

That includes your STUFF, and your SEASON.

Jesus knew we’d struggle with this...

He reminds us not to spend our energy protecting or worrying over things we can’t keep.

Jesus said it like this in Matthew 6 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven… For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (vv. 19-21)

And just a few verses later, Jesus addresses the thing we all struggle with most: WORRY.

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life… Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them… "

Jesus doesn’t JUST challenge our relationship with stuff—He challenges our obsession with tomorrow.

Our STUFF—and our SEASON.

Jesus asks..."Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?” (vv. 25–27)

Can you?

No. But we try, don’t we? We cling. We stress. We fixate.

We pray for blessings, and then live too distracted to enjoy them.

We get so consumed with what’s next that you forget what’s now.

He reminds us that we’re deeply loved by the Father. That He provides for birds and flowers, and we’re worth far more to Him.

He says, “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”

Maybe God has already given you what you prayed for—peace, provision, family, rest.

But if you’re stuck worrying about tomorrow or clinging to the temporary, you’ll miss the miracle right in front of you.

The time we have. The moments recorded and passed by on the hands of your watch.

Here’s what I’m learning:

Hold things loosely.

Give generously.

Trust God completely.

Because you can’t take it with you—but you can leave with MORE.

You can leave this life with more faith, more peace, more legacy, and more treasure stored in heaven than you ever imagined. --PZ