Those who have Jesus are millionaires

If you could have anything in the world, what would you ask for? Riches? Fortune? Fame?

To be happy is one of life's pursuits and yet, for many, it seems almost unobtainable. Some pursue happiness with an unrelenting resolve, and just about the time it can be grasped, it suddenly eludes them, and the cycle begins again.

One of the happiest people I have ever met was a 93-years-young wonderful soul in the rest home. She held me close the day I had to enter my two aunts in the nursing home where she resides. My tears were falling on her feet as she reassured me that she would see after them.

She never failed to give me a report in the weeks and months that followed. She took note of how my aunts were eating, how they were sleeping, and how they were enjoying the activities.

My beautiful friend is everyone's favorite. She hugs the nurses and is always cheerful and positive. I will never forget something she told me: "Honey, someone can have everything in the world, but they are miserable. Take me, the Lord has blessed me so much. I have a wonderful place to stay, good food to eat and people to take care of me. I'm so happy!"

My friend's remarks reminded me of real "happiness." The happiest people I know are the ones who forget about their own existence. They take great joy in simple pleasures … the beauty of a sunset, the delicious smell of a refreshing rain, the handclasp of a child's soft chubby hand, a stranger's smile at the post office, a loving glance from a spouse's eyes.

Happy people are a grateful people. They find so many wondrous things to be thankful for.

You don't have to have lots of money to be happy. Those whose priorities are finding simply pleasures and lending helping hands to others make the richest people alive. Being poor financially is not being poor because family, friends, and spiritual blessings make you a millionaire.

All the money in this world cannot buy peace health or lasting happiness. One might wish to trade places with the wealthy, but at the end of life the weathly would gladly trade places with the child of God who inherits heaven's wealth.

There is a vast difference between the necessity of money and the love of money. Fortunes can be made or lost overnight.

The desire for money and things are really desires for filling empty places of the heart. Only Jesus can fill the empty places in the human heart.

In Jesus we have a love that never ends, a soul that never dies, a peace that passes all understanding, a joy that is never ending, a hope that is never disappointed, a light that shines forever, a wisdom that can never be erased, a beauty that can never be changed, and resources that are never ending.

That dear friend is real wealth. You cannot buy it or earn it. It is a free gift. All you have to do is to receive it. Receiving Jesus makes you a millionaire.

Be a millionaire today and enjoy the simple pleasures of life.

Only those who have Jesus are millionaires!

Joan Clayton is a retired teacher, writer and religion columnist living in Portales. E-mail her at [email protected]