Presidents’ Day

It’s Presidents’ Day.

If I’m being honest, this doesn’t normally mean anything to me except we’ve recently acquired various coins from years of one collector with various presidents on many of them.

Most of their portraits are as tarnished as the Union Pacific RR container they’re in.  There’s also a mason jar of pennies with Abraham Lincoln’s silhouette and dimes with Franklin Roosevelt dated across all ages.

That’s not all.

There’s a Maxwell House Original Roast coffee tin collecting Kennedy half-dollars and an amber plastic vile with no child-resistant option or refills remaining that are full of quarters with George Washington’s profile.  More coins are in a metal-hinged watch case with a solitary $2 bill with the face of Thomas Jefferson on the front.  

There had to have been much patience in the collection of these coins over the years. Save times when the collector dipped into the tarnished vessel for perhaps a phone booth or a known vending machine to be passed.  Maybe a parking meter on any given day.  If that was true, and I’m sure it was, it seems to me the collector just added back to it with what I imagine to be all the end of the day valuables from the pants of this one man’s pockets.  

So, here’s one old container after another old container with one old president after another old president with their face in the collection of dated years of coins.  Yet, what remains the same in each container is one inscription on each coin.

“In God We Trust.”

Our first president, whose face is on the quarter said,  “It is impossible to govern the world without God.  It is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly implore His protection and favor.”

Today we are a nation governed under President 47.  But, we are not to put our trust in President 47 or 46 or 45 or 44.  These often end up in portraits and silhouettes in a tarnished vessel.  Our trust was never meant to be in these men.  Our trust isn’t meant to be placed with any mere human who relies on human strength.  We put our trust in the Lord.  

“Blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made the Lord their hope and confidence.”

It is in God we are to trust.

At the end of the day, there’s nothing more valuable. 

Jeremiah 17:5-7

Correction

I’m no where near what you might consider a poster child for this.

Average age is not, mine!

I thought I was too old at 26.

I thought I was too old at 40.

A short time back, I went in for a dental consultation.

I kept the written estimate and ran across it and what had felt like only a span of weeks was 9 months and I thought, “Man! I could have already had a dang baby.” Providing I could still have a baby.  Which, I can’t. I’m too old for that, too. So, my caution was thrown to the wind at that point and I did it.

I got braces at sixty.

Eek!

Waiting to do something that I set my mind to is not really like me. But, for 34 years I have watched this situation grow worse each passing year.  I knew I wanted it.  Maybe needed it. I watched others around me through the years yield the benefit of their decision.  But, I continued to put off mine.

When using time as a determining factor, there is a particular period of life that will come whether you make that choice or not.  Is there something you’ve been putting off? 

For me, it’s been braces.

If all goes well and pending patient cooperation, the actual treatment plan should birth a visible straight-toothed smile in an anticipated 18 months.  

If I were to take a good look at myself, I know I have way more things crooked than my teeth.  My heart is one.  I can let it stray a bit. 

Correction.

I can let it stray a lot.  There is not an easy appliance to correct that, but there is wisdom.  Proverbs teaches people wisdom and discipline to help them understand the insights of the wise.  Proverbs teaches people to live disciplined and successful lives.  Proverbs helps them do what is right, just, and fair. 

You know, correction!

I’ve never read through Proverbs, the poetry of Scripture.  But, there are nearly 900 of them. I could read two a day for 18 months and maybe there is something in my crooked little heart that could birth something  a little more visibly aligned like my Vis.align.

Pending patient cooperation.

Proverbs 1

2 Timothy 3:16

Canceled

Canceled.

There’s a word for the year.  Or, years!

In the latest of cancellations was my grandson’s first birthday party.  Before that, was my  granddaughter’s. If I were to add them all up this past year, it would be most of ours.  It’s not just the birthdays. It’s all sorts of events.  I mean, we’re all doing the same thing, right?  The bulk food is ordered and likely prepared.  The house is arranged.   Your hopes are high.  The anticipation hangs with the decorations. Everything seems on track.  Until it’s not.

Canceled.

You kind of still can’t believe it.  The odds.  The timing.  

In the scope of cancellations, I know a party is nothing.  Even a first birthday party.  Missed milestones are minor.  Worse things are canceled.  Many things are cut short. Dare I mention precious life.  It just feels like, zap.

You kind of still can’t believe it.  The odds.  The timing.

I’m attending too many funerals.  I think we all have.  I don’t know.  Maybe it’s an age thing. But, it’s canceling a lot for those who loved them most. We’ve never been given any promises in that regard.  Even still, prepared plans, anticipations, and arrangements can go abruptly off track.

I think it’s a little of misplaced hope that I have.  I just can’t keep putting it in places it was never meant to be. The possibility of what could have been derails my thoughts and steals my sensibilities.

Truth is, these things where I’m putting my hope are but a dim preview of the good things to come, not the good things themselves.  We’re told to hold tightly without wavering to the hope we have.  It’s not what’s in the present,  it’s what’s ahead of us.  Fix our eyes not on what is seen but what is unseen.  God still has a promise for us.  He can be trusted.

My little Thomas Reid had his birthday cake prepared, baked, and iced.  Atop was centered a perfect little rainbow. I know what a rainbow means.   It’s always a good reminder.  You can cancel everything in the world.  Party or no party, God still has a promise.  You want to know what that promise is not?  You want to know what that promise will never be?

Canceled.

Hebrews 10 

2 Corinthians 4:18

Lost Diamond

I lost my diamond. 

I was so bummed.  I’d been so good for 35 years and then I look down for one unexpected moment and 4 upright prongs are holding nothing.  

Nothing!  

I mean, if I’d lost the gold band at least I had a chance with a metal detector.  How do you find a diamond?  To make matters worse, the greatest chance of finding it would be in the largest commercial-sized servings of rice that I was cooking.  That seemed the most logical place for it to have dropped.

Do you know what looking for a diamond in a vat of transparent rice is like?  It’s like finding a needle in a haystack. It’s like finding Waldo.

It’s like, hopeless.

Still, I searched high and low.  I scoured the house. I inspected nooks and crannies.    

Two years passed.  

The other day, I was deep cleaning the bottom vegetable drawer in the refrigerator and I hear scraping.  Every swipe.  Scrape.  I was curious.  I thought it was likely another piece of broken plastic from the vegetable bin.  I looked on the cleaning rag and thought what I saw was a lost jewel from play jewelry.  Yet, tucked away I never forgot I had a missing diamond.  It had been way too long to get my hopes up for this, though.

But, I looked at this gem.  It drew me closer in.  My nerves were activated.  I couldn’t immediately deduce with any amount of certainty.  

I ran it to my empty 4 prong setting, and oh, so hesitantly, dared to place it inside.

Just like the glass slipper - it fit!

I couldn’t believe my eyes. 

A drawer that I could have vacuumed debris.  A drawer that I could have pulled out and rinsed then dumped.  But, I didn’t.  

You can imagine my excitement. I told everybody.  I’m even telling you!   Such joy!

I was reading today a similar parable about a woman’s lost coin that was said to hold sentimental value.  And then it explained,  “like that of a wedding ring.” Once found, you can count on it - “That’s the kind of party God’s angels throw every time one lost soul turns to Him.”

I get it.  You just no longer care how long it was lost.  You’re so glad it’s found.

Luke 15:8-10