A while back I came across an article in Reader’s Digest on some of the more unusual bequests that have been recorded in wills. Here are a few examples:
A man from Topeka, Kansas, requested that six of his largest creditors be selected to serve as pallbearers. “They carried me this far,” he reasoned, “so they might as well finish the job.” A devoted golfer from Florida, who felt that he had spent a good portion of his playing days in a certain sand trap, asked that his ashes be scattered in the same trap, so that “he could lie there for all eternity.” A wealthy New Yorker enjoined his executors to auction off seventy-one pairs of his trousers, with the proceeds to be given to the poor. It was later discovered that he had secretly sewn $1,000 into the pockets of each pair!
My personal favorite was a woman in Maryland who left her entire estate to God. Six months after her death, the County Sheriff’s Office reported, “After due and diligent search, it is concluded that God cannot be located in this county.”
Other wills contained very specific conditions. One fellow from Ohio, whose wife always fussed about his cigar smoking, left her a million dollars—provided that she smoke five cigars a day in his memory. A father from New Jersey left each of his sons $50,000, on the condition that they remain clean-shaven and have monthly haircuts.
I guess it just goes to show you that some folks love to have the last word. Even after they are dead and buried, they are still trying to exert control!
Of course, as Christians, we know better than that—or at least we should. The only One who has the last word is God, and God already proclaimed it in the person of Jesus Christ. As the Apostle Paul so eloquently expresses it, “Nothing shall ever separate us from the love of God—not things in the past, or things to come … not rulers or authorities … not earthly creatures, or even heavenly ones.”
We have been named as beneficiaries of an inheritance that is unconditional, unalterable, and imperishable. In fact, as far as I can tell, the only thing that is required of us is that we claim the inheritance and start living as the rightful heirs!
A man from Topeka, Kansas, requested that six of his largest creditors be selected to serve as pallbearers. “They carried me this far,” he reasoned, “so they might as well finish the job.” A devoted golfer from Florida, who felt that he had spent a good portion of his playing days in a certain sand trap, asked that his ashes be scattered in the same trap, so that “he could lie there for all eternity.” A wealthy New Yorker enjoined his executors to auction off seventy-one pairs of his trousers, with the proceeds to be given to the poor. It was later discovered that he had secretly sewn $1,000 into the pockets of each pair!
My personal favorite was a woman in Maryland who left her entire estate to God. Six months after her death, the County Sheriff’s Office reported, “After due and diligent search, it is concluded that God cannot be located in this county.”
Other wills contained very specific conditions. One fellow from Ohio, whose wife always fussed about his cigar smoking, left her a million dollars—provided that she smoke five cigars a day in his memory. A father from New Jersey left each of his sons $50,000, on the condition that they remain clean-shaven and have monthly haircuts.
I guess it just goes to show you that some folks love to have the last word. Even after they are dead and buried, they are still trying to exert control!
Of course, as Christians, we know better than that—or at least we should. The only One who has the last word is God, and God already proclaimed it in the person of Jesus Christ. As the Apostle Paul so eloquently expresses it, “Nothing shall ever separate us from the love of God—not things in the past, or things to come … not rulers or authorities … not earthly creatures, or even heavenly ones.”
We have been named as beneficiaries of an inheritance that is unconditional, unalterable, and imperishable. In fact, as far as I can tell, the only thing that is required of us is that we claim the inheritance and start living as the rightful heirs!
posted by Dr. Robert Crilley at
2:51 PM
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