The family moved from a 2 bedroom bungalow to a 4 bedroom colonial about 5 minutes away. The new home was like a mansion to us. It had so may extra rooms...a den, family room, dining room, rec room, 2 extra bedrooms & a 2 car garage. As the family grew, we needed more space to live & more space to store all of the extra stuff.
We hoped that once he was alone in the house, my dad would sell it & move into something much smaller. But to this day, he hasn't. It's not that he's materialistic. I believe he doesn't want to let go of the memories he has in that house...of our mom, of his children & grandchildren. So I'm not comparing him to the greedy man in the gospel who wanted to build larger barns to hold all of his accumulated things so that he could finally relax & enjoy himself when retired. No, my dad knows he cannot take that stuff with him. But what he can take with him are the many loving relationships he has accumulated during the course of his 89 year life.
The sad reality of the man in the gospel parable is that he had no relationships. Remember how Jesus put it? "He said TO HIMSELF, 'I know what I will do, I will build bigger barns.'" The man had no one to talk to so he had to talk to himself. He had not learned that you can't take money or possessions with you, only the relationships you have accumulated with other people. How sad that he never learned that lesson.