Auctioned off cheap!
The mini-farm was lined with farmers and other buyers huddled around stuff, dressed in winter clothing with heavy coats, boots, gloves and hats. The excitement of the pending estate sale, examining the wares of a deceased owner was all the buzz in the cold winter air. What does the whole of your life consist of: a mounted deer head, Coffee cans full of bolts, boxes of paint cans, tool chests with assorted tools, lawn furniture, fishing tackle, barns full of cast iron pans, lawn mowers, tractors and household goods? While attending an estate auction the finality of an estate sale said it all: the material things would be auctioned off cheap!
The auctioneer stood in front of the crowd he announced that it was 10 o’clock, time for the auction to begin, however he did something I had never seen or heard before. My love for auctions was planted by my dad who took me to my first auction as a boy: the quick talking auctioneer, the little numbered cards flashing at him, the agony sounded when someone lost the bid-just bit me. Now more than 50 years later, I’m with my youngest son experiencing another sale. But this one is different, really different. The auctioneer said, “it is 10 o’clock, yet it is just about Easter, when Jesus Christ rose from the grave, you need to consider the forgiveness of the Savior that is available to you because of His sacrifice at Calvary, now consider that for what it is worth to you.” I was so surprised by his statement I found myself saying “Amen” as if it were a prayer or a benediction. One man’s whole life’s belongings were going to be auctioned off cheap, the only One Who can make life valuable was magnified before everyone. Echoed in my heart was Mark 8:36 “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?”