Shade Tree Wisdom 11/18/10

Had lunch yesterday with a friend, and he handed me a card he had devised, using my comments about curmudgeon that I made just that morning. Clever, and one to save and display. He is retired as I am but he is working probably as hard as ever.

Many cards, letters, emails and phone calls yesterday, humbling, and kind of nice to be remembered too.

It got me to thinking about the many changes I have witnessed in my lifetime. I remember when my uncle Oscar bought a new Dodge car that had real glass windows instead of curtains. The whole body was enclosed. He used to heat a brick, wrap it in burlap, and put it at grandma’s feet to keep her warm. And she said, “My, I wouldn’t wonder if the boys in Detroit would figure out a way to put a heater in here some day”.

I remember too when we had to get up from the chair, walk to the set, and change the channel by turning a knob. And it was exciting to get Toledo, Windsor, Lansing as well as Detroit on TV. And Detroit offered three channels. Now see where we are.

In my lifetime we built a tunnel under the River to connect Detroit and Windsor, we’ve bored through the Alps and the Rockies for railroads and roads, we’ve even built a tunnel underneath the English channel to connect England and France, and we have invented devices to put in our cars to show us exactly where an address is, and we have built a station in space. We drill for oil miles underground and with success. All this makes one think there is no place left for anything.

Yet, one day Jesus said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you, and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the earth”. Matthew 28,18-20.

And just before He ascended into heaven He said to them, “You will receive power when the Holy Ghost is come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea ad Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Acts 1,8.

Really quite an assignment, isn’t it? Impossible. Where are the tools for the job? Where are the plans? Where’s the back-up system, the input from exerts and all the machinery needed to carry this out? All there, empowered by the Holy Spirit and using the Word, the message of salvation in Jesus Christ, the Good News. And it is working yet.

Just the other day, for instance, I learned there are 80 missionaries in the State of Texas working with foreign languages! Quietly doing His work and Will. And all over this world there are people, we call them Christians, who live and act as if Jesus is returning today and being ready to welcome him with joy, and busy inviting friend and neighbors to welcome Him too as their Savior.

And this is a matter for thanksgiving and for joy in our Lord, is it not?

GPD 11/18/10