The quickest way to double your money is to fold it in half and put it back in your pocket.
"Do not wear yourself out to get rich; have the wisdom to show restraint." Proverbs 23:4
As Christmas gets close, I always add to my daily prayers people that you might not expect. The postman.
An old friend of mine was a Postmaster. We would sit and drink coffee quite often. But come around Thanksgiving time, he'd have to cancel. "I just don't know what to do," he would lament. "There's no way we can get everything delivered." But he did. Always. He'd stay late at night helping the clerks to sort. A couple of times I brought him a hamburger for dinner because he wouldn't leave until everything had been sorted.
Every postal worker I've known has been the same way. The mission of delivering mail often comes at personal sacrifice.
But sometimes, that sense of duty has been abused.
I once stayed in a little town, literally in the middle of nowhere, for about a week. It was called Vernal, Utah. To get to Vernal I had to fly into Salt Lake City and then drive for hours and hours across some of the most beautiful wilderness you've ever seen. For several of those hours I had no cell phone service. Twice I had to stop for wildlife. Once a herd of cattle were being driven across the road. A second time, a herd of deer that had to be at least 50 in number, made my jaw drop.
Finally, after driving for so long, I turned a curve in the road and there was Vernal. A picturesque town surrounded by mountains. Everywhere you turn in Vernal there seems to be a statue of a dinosaur. I learned quite a bit about the town in my stays there. Including how a bank was built through mail order.
It seems that back in the day, Vernal was so remote that shipping things to the town was really expensive. So when the bank wanted to build a brick building, they ran some numbers and found that the cheapest and fastest way to get the bricks was by mail.
80,000 bricks. Each one individually wrapped in paper, stamped and postmarked to Vernal. The bank wanted the bricks delivered straight to their location but the Postmaster, ever vigilant in his duty, said that every piece of mail had to go across his counter in order to be official.
During this Christmas time, many of us celebrate Advent, the four weeks leading up to Christmas Day. During Advent, we hear about one of the most important messages and messenger of all times, John the Baptist. Jesus says in Matthew that John the Baptist was the messenger prophesied about. "See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you." (Matthew 11:10).
Jesus also tells us what that message was: "The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them." (Matthew 11:5).
Messengers have played an important role all throughout history, especially in the Bible. Their sense of duty to God and nation is told all throughout the Old and New Testaments.
This Christmas season, do something nice for your postal person, our modern day messengers. Because the most important message ever sent came from God and was delivered on a cold winter morning in a lowly manger.
And the message is, "I love you this much."
Let us pray.
Gracious God. We thank you for the sense of duty and pride for the unseen workers in our lives. From the postal worker to the police officer. Those who make our lives better each and every day. We lift them in prayer and send our blessings into their lives. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
PASTOR TROY CONRAD IS MINISTER OF THE FARMINGTON UNITED METHODIST CHURCH. EMAIL: [email protected]. THE OPINIONS EXPRESSED ARE THOSE OF THE AUTHOR.
Religion on 12/21/2016