I AM fascinated by the programme ‘Heir Hunters’. It features companies making their living by tracing family members of people who die without leaving a will. The most important day in their week is Thursday because just after midnight the Treasury publishes that week’s Bona Vacantia (‘unclaimed goods’ in Latin). The agents choose a ‘good name’ to work on and set about tracing beneficiaries who may inherit thousands of pounds.

Have you ever inherited something? I have a few things I treasure that belonged to my Gran, to many others they may be worthless items, but to me they are priceless, old photographs, a little handwritten book she wrote about her life and precious letters my Grandad wrote to her before they married. My Gran had a troubled beginning, born out of wedlock in 1900, she never met her mother and, as a child, knew little of the love of a family.

The most precious letter is my Grandad’s marriage proposal to Gran in which he enclosed an engagement ring which he had ‘sealed with a kiss’. My Grandad’s words convinced Gran of God’s love for her as well as his own, that God had remembered, honoured and blessed her and made her part of a family.

We can all share in the wonderful inheritance God has for us through Jesus. Paul says in Ephesians chapter 1 vs 13-14, ‘And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession – to the praise of his glory.’ What a wonderful inheritance with have in him, priceless!

Edwina Sleeman

White River Community Church