Sharing an Inheritance

Children learn from a very early age to guard what they believe to be their own. My one-year old has a particular grunt that she makes, along with an authoritative stiff arm, when our two-year old comes near her baby doll. One might say it is motherly instinct, but in all reality she's just marking her territory. We all get a little nervous when something we value could fall into the hands of another, and we might not say it out loud, but our hearts often scream "MINE!" It's virtuous to teach a toddler to share to share her toys, but how many parents exhibit the same generosity they plead with their kids to give? The same nature demonstrated in those small toddlers is also found in the full-grown versions. Our fists are clenched tightly to what we possess because we're afraid that the things we release may not in some way return to us- as if all that we have came to us simply by our own hard work or our own power (Deut. 8:17-18). The clinched fist reveals more to us than our shrewdness, nor can it be chalked up to good business savvy. It tells us that we don't trust a Father who provides for His children. He brought all into our hands, and if it is used to bring glory to His name, by sharing with those who have need, will He not also care for us? We, who in actuality, have very little should take note from Him who possesses all things. The One who claims the cattle on a thousand hills does not have a sharing problem. In fact, He takes great joy in showering others with all that He possesses, and has seen to this in a remarkable way. Outside of Christ, all people are what the Scriptures describe as alienated from God, hostile toward Him, doing evil deeds (Col. 1:21), dead in their sins (Eph. 2:1), without hope (v.12), blindly following the god of this world (2 Cor. 4:4). All are slaves to sin with no power to overcome it, rejecting the Creator to worship the created thing (Rom.1:21-23). But God, in His great mercy, "sent forth his Son...to redeem...so that we might receive adoption as sons" (Gal 4:4-5). Jesus is the perfect firstborn Son who rightfully inherits all that the Father has, but He willingly came to die a sinner's death, so that we might share in His inheritance as adopted sons and daughters. Isn't this profound? Disney has made a fortune off of fairy tale stories like Cinderella, where a girl who is basically a slave to her step-mother climbs out of her circumstances to marry the prince, thus having a claim to all the kingdom. In our story, Cinderella is a slave prostitute who won't even acknowledge the King- in fact opposes Him, but the King gives her a new heart that will love Him, refuses to punish her for her past (having taken the punishment for her Himself), and treats her as his virgin bride. Jesus, who has a rightful claim to all things, refuses to say to us, "MINE!" but rather shares all that He has with His new brothers and sisters (Heb. 2:11-13) and will do so into eternity. He does not expect repayment. We cannot pay Him. We have nothing to offer. If we even tried, His gift to us would cease to be by His glorious grace, but instead by a worker's wage. So, when I see my girls clutching their things tightly, and I tell them to share, I must not do this because it makes me look like a good parent, nor should I teach them this because it's the nice thing to do. Rather, I should teach them to do it, and practice it myself, because this is what the Father teaches His children, and does for them, in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, who "though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich" (2 Cor 8:9). Their hearts will not be transformed by mere commands of their father's law, but instead by understanding and believing what God has done for them in Christ, thus becoming part of His everlasting family.