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Connections&
October 14, 2001 -- 28th Sunday of the Year
One of the lepers, realizing that he had been healed, returned, glorifying God in a loud voice; and he fell at the feet of Jesus and thanked him. Jesus said in reply, "Ten were cleansed, were they not? Where are the other nine?" Luke 17:5-10
Pop's accounting system
The owner of a successful small-town hardware store kept his accounts payable in a big envelope, his cash in a small lock box, and his accounts due stuck on a spindle. His son, who had just completed his M.B.A. and had passed his C.P.A. exam, said, "Pop, I don't understand how you can run your business like this. You can't even tell how much profit you're making. Why don't you let me set up a computerized bookkeeping system for you?"
"I don't need it, son," the elder explained. "You see, my father - your grandfather - was a tenant farmer and when he died all I had to my name was a pair of overalls and a pair of shoes. So I moved from the farm and came to town. I worked hard and saved my money and finally started this hardware business. Today, your brother is a lawyer, your sister is a doctor and you're a C.P.A. Your mother and I live in a nice home. I own this hardware store. And everything is paid for.
"So according to my accounting system," Pop told his son with a smile, "when you add all that together, and subtract the overalls and the shoes, everything else is profit."
[Winston K. Pendleton.]
CONNECTION: For no other reason than love so deep we cannot begin to fathom it, God has breathed his life into us. The only fitting response we can make is to stand humbly before God in quiet, humble thanks. Such a sense of gratitude can transform cynicism and despair into optimism and hope and make whatever good we do experiences of grace. But too often we let our worries and fears over what we might lose and our disappointments and hurts over what we don't have or never will have overwhelm that spirit of gratitude. Like the Samaritan leper who gives thanks for the miracle that has taken place in his life, we, too, can be transformed by such joyful gratitude to God once we realize that, in Christ, we have been "made whole," "made clean." "restored" to completeness in his hope and love. ¦
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