If you want to know what God thinks about money, just look at the people He gives it to. — Old Irish saying

A few days ago, I had breakfast with a friend, and our conversation turned to inheritances. We were discussing how our parent’s interests have left us with things that are very important to them, but aren’t to us, and that when our parents pass, it will fall to us to dispense with them. In my case, my father has been building classic cars for fifty years, and my mother shares my late grandmother’s fondness for antiques. My brother and I don’t share our parents’ interests, leading to my expectation that we’ll likely liquidate their estate.

The conversation turned, however, when I did a quick enumeration of the various things that would need to be liquidated, and estimated the value. My friend’s eyes went wide over her pancakes, and it caused me to stop mid-thought. When I asked what was the matter, she replied that she didn’t realize I came from a wealthy family. Given that I most certainly don’t come from a wealthy family, I responded that I wasn’t sure what she meant. Her response shocked me as much as she had been: “Do you realize you just counted out over a million dollars?”

In truth, I really hadn’t realized I’d counted out over a million dollars. I would never think of my parents as millionaires – they pay the bills every month, but certainly aren’t carrying on like Paris Hilton. Mom carries a balance in her checkbook, but it’s nowhere near seven figures, and our house is still under mortgage, though it’s due to be paid off this year. The reality is, however, that between real estate, vehicles, antiques inherited from my grandmother, investments, and their insurance, my parents’ net worth has passed the one million mark, without any of us ever really thinking about it.

I thought a long time about this, especially whether or not to write on the topic, and eventually decided that while I’m a bit uncomfortable with the realization, there are probably many others out there who have no idea how wealthy they really are. When all we focus on is bank balance, we can tend to forget that wealth builds in many other ways, and could even fail to notice that we’ve become millionaires. I think in the end, I find that a very comforting thought, that money really doesn’t have to change us.

Count your blessings, name them one by one,
Count your blessings, see what God hath done!
Count your blessings, name them one by one,
And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.

How so indeed!