Salvation Sound - May 2011

Posted on May 8, 2011

Are you of little worth ?

Matthew 10: 31. “Do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows”. In the town where Ethel lived she went to her minister and asked if she could teach in Sunday School. He informed her that he thought she was too old! She was 76 years of age.

One day whilst Ethel was weeding her garden a young Chinese student from the local university stopped to comment on the flowers that were growing there. She invited him in for a cup of tea; as they talked together about their lives she had the opportunity to tell him of Jesus, and His love for her and what changes loving Him had made in her life. The next day the lad returned with another student; and so began Ethel’s ministry; because of her age the Chinese students listened to her with respect. When she died 70 Chinese believers sat together at her funeral. Yet she was thought to be to old to teach little children!

If you are still young and energetic you may find it difficult to sympathise with the feelings of older people but those of us who have passed the midpoint on lifes journey and are now on the slippery slope can appreciate what David said, “I have been young, and now am old” Psalm 37:25 and Psalm 92:14 “They shall still bring forth fruit in old age, and they shall be fat and flourishing”!

In the countryside lived an old couple; their garden was a junk yard in the literal meaning; scrap metal, wheels, bits of iron and wire were all stacked there. The old man bent through years of labour sat over a little forge battering the material into useable condition. Over the years he had amassed a small fortune, he had no need to work, but be loved what he was doing and he felt useful.

These ‘doings’ remind me of how our Saviour takes lives that so often seem useless and recycles them until a new purpose is given to them; a new value placed upon them and so through the power of God, the world is a richer place. As life takes its course we know that the bodies we now possess are prone to both aging, physical decline and eventually death; but we have been promised and have the hope of a new body, so despite our aches and pains our destiny belongs safely in the hands of Jesus. As the apostle Paul says “In an instant we shall all be changed as quickly as the blinking of an eye.”

So then my next T-Shirt will be printed with ‘20 years old but with 50+ years of experience!!

Source: Focus, May 2011