You Can't Take It With You

Our 48-year-old son has entered the theater, in Belle Fourche, SD, a small town near Sturgis that claims to be the geographic center of the US.  He is keeping his day job. A few years ago, his entire family, including our daughter-in-law and three grandchildren took part in performing Beauty and the Beast, a hilarious and fun performance.  Next month, he and our granddaughter will perform in You Can’t Take It With You, a comedy that exposes the vanity of pursuing wealth and power instead of building friendships and family. We will be in the audience!

 The movie version appeared in 1938 starring James Stewart and Lionel Barrymore. Stewart played the son of a wealthy mogul who will stop at nothing to build his financial empire. The son falls in love with his stenographer, a young woman from the other side of the tracks. Of course, in the end, the wealthy snobs get their comeuppance. A few years later Stewart and Barrymore teamed up again in the 1948 classic It’s a Wonderful Life as George Bailey and Mr. Potter, another film that exalts the value of friendship and family over the pursuit of money and power.

 Perhaps these two plays reflect the values learned by the generation that endured the Great Depression and WW II.   It is a lesson every generation must learn. One we must learn again in these inflationary post-Covid times. Life is more than the sum of our possessions. Relationships, family, friends and faith are the true treasures to be prized.

 Jesus said, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and thieves break through and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroys, and thieves do not break in and steal,” (Matthew 6:19).

 And again, “He said to them, ‘Beware and be on your guard against every form of greed, for not even when one is affluent does his life consist of his possessions. And He told them a parable, saying, ‘The lans of a rich man was very productive. And he began thinking to himself saying, ‘What shall I do, since I have no place to store my crops?’ And he said, ‘This I will do: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and I will store my grain and all my goods there.’ And I will say to myself, “You have many good stored up for many years to come. Relax, eat, drink and enjoy yourself!” But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your soul is demanded of you; and as for all you have prepared, who will own it now?’ Such is the one who stores up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God,” (Luke 12:15-21).

 I have lived long enough to know.  I have seen the treasures of youth rusting away in mildewed barns and rotting in dusty attics.  I have watched the wealthy store up vast fortunes only to end their days in loneliness, their estates tied up in bitter lawsuits.  And, by contrast, I have the seen the poor surrounded by family and friends in their old age. The saying is true, “You can’t take it with you.” 

Bill's book, We Beheld His Glory is free as an eBook on Amazon August 9-13.