Today I tried to leave my house just to get caught in a crazy traffic jam on a little county road. You see, there was an estate sale going on down the road from our house. We live at the very end of the road and this was happening closer to the front of the road…well, maybe the middle of our one lane (two if you squeeze to the shoulder) road. Cars EVERYWHERE! They lined the side of the road for many houses, barely leaving space for people to get in and out of their driveways. I was half way down the line of cars when a car from the other direction decided to come right at me. There was nowhere for me to go except forward, plus I had a truck behind me. This car sat. Didn’t move for the longest because since they had started down this path, they had cars now behind them as well. It was a standoff and I was NOT moving. I was becoming super frustrated when finally one of the cars behind the one in front of me pulled off to the side. That’s when I finally won the standoff. The car in front of me realized their only choice was to back up. They were not going to get that front parking spot in front of the estate sale.
Yes, I had a bit of pride in winning the standoff. I did feel the frustration of these strangers on our road blocking my path and messing up my plans for the day. These strangers who just came to pillage through the stuff left behind in a family home. It looked like a Black Friday sale where the most coveted Christmas item was on sale for pennies. It was crazy. But as I sat this morning listening to my Bible study through Proverbs (10-12) the thought of how sad this whole situation was hit me.
For reference…we live in our travel trailer, which we have done for now 7 years. Never was our plan, but here we are. We live tiny. We sold lots and lots of things and stored many more in the barn on our property. Things. Stuff. Items we have lived without successfully for 7 years now. This summer I have been working on purging things from inside our 38 ft trailer that have accumulated throughout the school year (I am a teacher for those who don’t know.). My goal has been to become even more of a person who does not hoard or collect unnecessary things.
So, back to the estate sale. It hit me as I looked at pictures online of all the beautiful things for sale and all the collections to choose from, that these are the things left behind. These are things that children or family probably did not want. These are the things that someone once put value on and spent time collecting and gathering. Many of these items are surely collector’s items and valuable, but here they sit in an estate sale, going for pennies on the dollar. Guns, furniture, China collections, crystal, teapots, tea cups, and on and on. Beautiful things that surely spoke to a life well lived, but still, they are the things left behind.
This made me think about what we will leave behind for our kids. Currently, there are not many material things we can leave them. They will not get rich from what we have. I hope what we leave behind is a legacy…a legacy of faith and love. We’ve lost a couple of good and dear friends this year. 2025 hasn't been much better than 2020 was at this point. I sit in a chair left by my uncle as I type. I have a table beside me from my dear sweet “sister” that I was given as we cleaned out her home earlier this year. Today marks 5 months since another faithful friend left his family and all his friends. What did they leave behind? They left love. They left memories. They left examples of goodness and kindness, gentleness and faithfulness. They left examples of what living for Christ should look like.
It just makes me sad seeing someone’s life carted off by the highest bidder, or worse, hauled off to the dump. I want my life to mean more than that. All the things…all the earthly treasures can not go with us. They will be someone else’s in the end or even worse…thrown away.
“But store up for yourselves treasure in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.” Matthew 6:20
“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Matthew 6:21
“In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.” 1Timothy 6:19
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