Hidden treasures

My wallet was wearing out—the snap prone to loosen and fling my money and vital information to any and all.  It was a hand-me-down to start with—and I don’t mind used items that still have good wear.  But the time had come for me to shop for another at my favorite bargain haunt: a thrift store.  One seemed to fit my needs with just enough “pockets." But as I unzipped the front compartment, I discovered two twenty-dollar bills! What came to mind immediately—and I am not making this up—was an odd little proverb I’d read long ago:

“It’s no good, it’s no good!” says the buyer, then off he goes and boasts about his purchase. (Proverbs 20:14)

It's one thing to be dishonest, but another to bargain. I engaged in a lot of "bargaining" with customers during the "estate sales" I had to hold after both sets of parents died. I was glad to help people find a reasonable bargain for something they needed. And when I tag along when my husband goes to yard sales, I’ve done my own “suggesting” of a price, especially when there’s a sign that says “make offer.” It’s expected in the garage sale culture.

 But I couldn’t knowingly slip out the front door of this store with a two-dollar wallet and $40 hidden inside. When I went to purchase it, I told the clerk, “I am an honest person, and I found this money in a pocket.  The sorter must have overlooked it.”  After getting over the shock of my statement, she thanked me for my honesty, and asked if it would be okay to donate it to the store fund (the store chain helps disabled people). I walked out the door with an empty new wallet and a clear conscience.

BLAMELESSNESS

 Later that day at home, I looked up that vaguely-remembered verse, and took note of two others about honesty just above it:

“Differing weights and differing measures—the Lord detests them both.” (Proverbs 20:10)

“The righteous man leads a blameless life; blessed are his children after him.”  (Proverbs 20:7)

I know the book of Proverbs contains many admonitions to honesty.  It’s a trait that doesn’t “sell well” in our current “it’s-all-about-me” culture.  But that day, in a store aisle with no other customer nearby to witness it, I had a greater Witness--One whom I was glad to obey. I received the hidden treasure of doing what's right. And I still got a great wallet for less than "new" price.

Head- and heart-warming

Winter hadn’t left the calendar yet, but it was a sunny enough day that a walk sounded like a good idea to me.  I didn’t want to squish a knit hat on my head, so dug in my winterwear box in the closet for some old white earmuffs.  As I pulled them apart to put on my head, SNAP!  The plastic ear-to-ear arc broke.  Even household super-glue has its limits and this was one it couldn’t reattach. So I  pulled a snug knit hat on my head.  I like ear muffs but accepted the loss.  Maybe someday, probably at some thrift store, I’d find another pair at a reasonable price.

A few days later I tagged along with my husband to an estate sale.  As we hopped over snow piles to get to items for sale in the house and garage, I found nothing of interest.  (He did.)  As we were about to leave, I noticed a box of “free” things.  Right on top of miscellaneous things that nobody else had wanted was—you guessed it--a pair of black earmuffs, with a metal band of better quality than my cheap snapped-apart plastic ones.  I lifted the “muffs” out, thanked the money-takers for my “free gift,” and almost skipped down the hill remembering:

And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus. –Philippians 4:19

WARM EARS, WARMED HEART
Now, ear muffs are not a necessity—just something I like to wear when it’s cold. But it was just like God to plan ahead for me. I needed that encouragement for some heavy-duty need-much-prayer situations that had occupied us for a long time. If God could plop some earmuffs in a giveaway box, couldn’t I continue to trust Him for the still-unanswered?

The Lord and I have quite a history with this verse, especially during times of my life where I was between jobs or stretching my savings to get through college and graduate school. I really clung to it   after my parents died and I was on my own at age 31.  Oh, the ways He came through—like freelance-writing checks, babysitting, typing or filing jobs that turned out to be "just enough"to pay my bills.

What can I say to that?  Except, maybe, what Paul wrote as he wrapped up his letter to the Philippian church:

To our God and Father be glory for ever and ever.  Amen.  (Philippians 4:20)

Let the trumpet sound!

Spring’s daffodils take me back to my childhood in a rainy Western  Washington valley renowned for acres and acres of golden blooms. Daffodils are glorious, but short-lived.  As Robert Frost wrote in his famed 1923 poem: spring’s first "green" is gold, and nature's "hardest hue to hold." I find it meaningful that daffodils bloom close to Easter. Their trumpet-like centers prompt me to recall the magnificent chorus from Handel’s Messiah that quotes 1 Corinthians 15:51-52:
Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
In ancient times, trumpets heralded great news. They were associated with royalty and victory.  What greater occasion to herald than the reunion of Christ with Christ-followers!

Like a hand in a glove, these verses pair with another by Paul about death and eternal life:

We who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep [dead].  For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God.  And the dead in Christ will rise first.  Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.  And thus we shall always be with the Lord. (1 Thessalonians 4:15-17)
Or, as the late author Barbara Johnson put it humorously in one of her book titles: “He’s Gonna Toot and I’m Gonna Scoot!”

As for “scoot,” this year I was reminded of my mortality as I got hit by a string of serious illnesses, including pneumonia. Recently, in my doctor’s office for help with a month-long battle with bronchitis, I asked what might be compromising my health. Aware of the mind-body connection in illness, I told him of stresses from someone's many negative E-mails and phone calls. One day, the same person showed up at our door and ranted "I hate you" repeatedly, then turned and left. Such stresses, my doctor said, no doubt took their toll.

Yes, I pray for this person. The day of the front porch “hate” rant, my adrenalin flowing from this surprise attack, I sensed Jesus saying, “This is not of Me. Remember, while I was dying on the cross, people ranted negatives at Me.”

He died... but He rose again! The miracle of His resurrection guarantees the eternal life, free of sin and sorrow, that we rightly celebrate at Easter. Let the trumpet sound!  Each day, we’re closer to Heaven’s final call. Hallelujah!

Singing when you least feel like it

A dark cloud of gloom over “people problems” hung over me as I started my errands the other day. Then, just blocks from home, the words of an old hymn welled up within me and I was soon singing:

Come Thou fount of every blessing,
Tune my heart to sing thy praise.
Streams of mercy, never ceasing,
Call for songs of loudest praise.

Hymn histories fascinate me, and I learned this one was composed in 1758 by Robert Robinson, a 23-year-old pastor who just three years earlier left a life of drinking and gangs to follow Christ. Written specifically for his Pentecost Sunday sermon, it is the best known of his two published hymns.  As for “Tune thy heart to sing thy praise,” I’d often heard that the best antidote for sadness and worry is to sing praises to God.  The other morning, thinking of this hymn, I tried coming up with an acrostic for PRAISE:  Here’s one:

            Prayerfully

            Releasing

            All

            Inexplicable problems to the

            Savior’s

            Eternal perspective

Song has a way of expressing the deepest parts of us.  Recently while reading Beth Moore’s To Live is Christ (Broadman, 2001), I was profoundly touched by a story she told of entering into a friend’s excruciating grief. This friend’s 15-year-old son was killed in an auto accident. Moore and two other women went with the grieving mother to the mortuary to choose a casket. Afterwards, they drove away, saying nothing for several blocks.  Then one friend began singing the contemporary chorus, “I love you, Lord.” A second friend joined in, and finally Beth Moore. At that point I had to put down the book, tears in my eyes as I imagined myself in that car as friends, voices broken by grief, lifted up Jesus! Moore added: “When praise is the last thing that comes naturally to us and we choose to worship Him anyway, we’ve had the privilege of offering a genuine sacrifice of praise” (To Live is Christ, p. 96).

The problems that prompted my unexpected recall of a classic praise-hymn  haven’t gone away. But God continues to teach me about His love and power. As the end of that hymn’s first stanza says:

Teach me some melodious sonnet,
Sung by flaming tongues above.
Praise the mount! I’m fixed upon it,
Mount of God’s unchanging love.