Before We Get Gathered
Number 6: November 26, 2005
The days after Thanksgiving are some of the busiest shopping days of the year. Consumers are lured into stores by almost any means to get a head start on Christmas shopping, or to get a great deal on the latest electronic devises to occupy one’s time, or to improve one’s quality of life.
Some things never change, consumers have been around for a long time.
As I was perusing a history book looking for information that dealt with a specific situation in early American Puritan history, I paused to read a page on recovering the past through household inventories. Historians use probate records to examine social changes in American society. They include wills, the legal disposition of estates, and household inventories taken by court-appointed appraisers that detail the personal possessions left at death.
Inventories have been especially valuable in tracing the transformation of colonial communities. They show changes in a community’s distribution of wealth. Inventories list and value almost everything a person owned—household possessions, equipment, books, clothes, jewelry, cash on hand, livestock, horses, crops, and stored provisions. Inventories gauge the quality of life at different social levels and how people made choices about investing their savings. Did they invest in capital goods of their trade such as land, ships, and equipment; or in personal goods such as household furnishings and luxury items; or in real property such as land and houses?
Inventories show that by the early 1700’s, ordinary householders were improving their standard of living. Finished furniture such as cupboards, beds, tables, and chairs turn up more frequently in inventories. Pewter dinnerware replaces wooden bowls and spoons, bed linen makes an appearance, and books and pictures are sometimes noted.
This article gives three illustrations of inventories, two of “less-favored” Americans and one of a rich merchant. One “less-favored” had cash, a gun and a Psalmbook as his only belongings. The other “less-favored” man lists a Bible as one of his 5 earthly possessions. These two men, although considered “less-favored” by the inventory-analysis people, had the items that could make them eternally rich, the Word of God. The Bible and Psalmbook, if read and believed, could lead them toward godliness, having a true, vital, spiritual relationship with God while on earth. This is certainly worth much more than all the consumer goods of this world.
I Timothy 6:6-8:
But godliness with contentment is great gain.
For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.
And having food and raiment let us be therewith content.
There is nothing wrong with having nice things or riches, as long as you do not consider gain as godliness, or love them, or put your trust in them.. As a society matures, it is natural that it wants to have nicer goods that last longer. Things that will make one’s life better, easier and more enjoyable. This has been the root of many inventions over the years. Still today, one of the greatest gifts you can give someone to enrich their life, is an accurate knowledge of the Bible.