Hey Gang, This morning God said, “Time
to lighten up!” I know most of you who avail yourselves to Gramps Morning
Thoughts have heard the following story, but I like it! And a repeat of
something that ignites a fire in our soul can only be good. It is the story of a saintly cobbler who
learned he was to receive a visit from the Lord that very day.
Though poorer than a church mouse, he determined to
entertain the Lord with the best hospitality he could muster. He bought a loaf of fine bread, a fragrant
log to make a fire, and prepared a new pair of shoes for the Master’s
feet.
As he waited a starving child came to his door. There was no way he could not break out the
fine bread and give it to the starving visitor.
When a freezing woman knocked on his door, the cobbler made a fire with
the fragrant log to warm her. And to a
young man with bruised and bleeding feet he gave the fine shoes.
By nightfall the cobbler was disappointed that the Lord had
not yet visited him. “Why have you not
come?” he prayed. But Jesus responded, “I did come – three
times. I was the hungry child and you
fed for me, I was the freezing woman you warmed at your fire, and I was the man
with freezing feet who you gave shoes.”
One of the high points of my life
occurred during one of the lowest points in my life. I had flunked out of college, had, up to that
point, made a general mess out of my life and did not have a clue where I was
going, I had an itch that I could not scratch, an emptiness I did not have a clue
how to fill.
Am not sure how or, why I ended up in
Lancaster, Pennsylvania. I would call it
an accident; God would call it a God-incident
or a leading! One has to eat, so a job
was a critical need but I certainly did not have much to offer an
employer. Flash! ‘Needed immediately, truck driver for dairy.’ Yes, “your hired” was music to my ears!
My job was to drive a route and pick
up milk at 53 Amish farms. Wow, was that a neat experience. Being around the Zook’s, Bontrager’s and
Miller’s was an experience that added something to my life- the ability feel
good about something. It certainly was
not their intent to shepherd me into the Kingdom, but it did jar the door
through their sincere caring for me.
There is a saying that I picked up
somewhere along life’s path that says, “We need to be witnesses every day,
every hour, every minute of every day and, if necessary, use words. To the Amish, how a person acts says so much
more about their faith than what they say they believe.
There is a biblical proverb behind
this way of thinking: “Your own soul is
nourished when you are kind; it is destroyed when you are cruel” (Pro.
11:17). Oh, how true that is. In our workshops on marriage relationships we
often titled it Strawberry Shortcake will get you far greater rewards than Dill
Pickles.
Paul teaches: “While we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, and especially
to those who are of the household of the faith and those under our roof”
(Gal. 6:10). Slight hillbilly addition.
So, turn your sensitivity eyes and
ears on this morning and watch for the hungry child, a freezing woman or a man
who has bleeding feet and in need of your third or fourth spare pair of shoes. Reach
out to them as the Good Samaritan did with the injured man on the Jericho road. Why? For
in the same measure that you give, God will give back to you” (Lu. 6:38b).
Blessings,
Gramps
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