Recently Ivana Trump was interviewed on television.  Ivana is the ex-wife of Donald Trump, one of the wealthiest men in the US of A.
Somewhere along the line the interviewer asked this lady what she had learned in life.  She replied, “I’ve learned that money doesn’t grow on trees.”

When I picked myself up off the floor I couldn’t help but wonder about the priorities of the rich and famous.  Here is a lady who reportedly received some twenty million dollars as a settlement of the divorce proceedings from husband Donald.  Then asked what lesson she has learnt in life the first thing she mentions is the profound (?) statement that money doesn’t grow on trees.  I would have expected to hear that from some husband or wife doing it tough, paying off the house mortgage in suburbia.
For me there are two problems here.
First, it seems to me that her reply betrays a preoccupation with material things.  Think of all the lessons we ever learn in life.  There are spiritual lessons and relational lessons that would (to use a pun) trump the material lessons any day.  Sorry, I don’t mean to demean the importance of the material realities in life... we can’t live without the bread and butter items of food, clothing and shelter.  But for crying out loud, is that really where our priorities ought to lie?
Imagine a moment that you were asked what lessons you have learnt in life.  Maybe at this point you should stop reading a moment and answer that for yourself.
When I think of life’s lessons they are numerous and varied and lessons about money probably wouldn’t even make into the top ten.  In the spiritual realm one of life’s lessons that I’ve learnt is that God is a wonderfully gracious God.  I could easily add another nine spiritual lessons that I’ve learnt over the years (and I only have four years up on Ivana Trump!)  In the area of relationships I’ve learnt that relationships require effort – there are even moments when they are plain hard work.  I could easily rattle off another half a dozen lessons that I’ve learnt when it comes to relationships.  Did this lady, who has behind her several broken relationships, never learn any important lessons in that department?  Well, seemingly not as important as learning that money doesn’t grow on trees.
A second problem would, it seems to me, lie in the area of satisfaction.  It doesn’t take much nous to realise that Invana Trump’s answer betrays, at worst, greed and, at best, a lack of contentment with what she has.  Why else would a wealthy socialite zero in on this as the memorable lesson that she has learnt in life?  ‘The Preacher’ in Ecclesiastes put it well: “He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves abundance with its income.  This too is vanity.” (5:10)
The sad reality of course is that Christians can be just as greedy and just as dissatisfied with what they have.  It was not for nothing that Paul warned Timothy that those who want to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.
God’s people know that there is no ‘money tree’ but that money and all other material things are a gift from a wonderfully gracious God who calls us to be good managers of the wealth that He entrusts to us.