I found a very nice eight-foot stepladder in the middle of my street. It had obviously fallen off someone’s truck but there was no truck or car in sight. That evening I called everyone on my street who owned a truck seeking its owner but all I got from my neighbors was congratulations on my new acquisition. It’s not often I find something of value. Usually I’m the one who loses things of value like keys and tools.
But wait. That is not exactly correct. On a very regular basis I find new friends. They certainly have lots of value. Each day in class I find out something new about one of my students. Usually it is something that helps me relate better to them and perhaps be a better teacher for them. That certainly has value. If I spend any time at all with my Bible I find things of value. What amazes me about that is it is not seeing a text for the first time but seeing new meaning in a text that I have read a hundred times. Ninety percent of the time I begin my classes by reading a passage of Scripture. Sometimes my students stop me and tell me I already read that one this semester. I like it when that happens because they remembered and I found out something new about them. They are listening.
So I regularly find things of value. They just aren’t stepladders or green pieces of paper with presidents’ pictures on them. But they have tons of value. How about you? What have you found today?
Written by Roger Bothwell on December 10, 2003.
Spring of Life, 901 Signorelli Circle, St. Helena, CA 94574