Waxed Fruit

"This little light of mine, I'm going to let it shine.

This little light of mine, I'm going to let it shine.

This little light of mine, I'm going to let it shine.

Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.

All around the neighborhood, I'm going to let it shine.

All around the neighborhood, I'm going to let it shine.

All around the neighborhood, I'm going to let it shine.

Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.

Hide it under a bushel? No! I'm going to let it shine.

Hide it under a bushel? No! I'm going to let it shine.

Hide it under a bushel? No! I'm going to let it shine.

Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.

Don't let Satan [blow] it out! I'm going to let it shine.

Don't let Satan [blow] it out! I'm going to let it shine.

Don't let Satan [blow] it out! I'm going to let it shine.

Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine."

How long would you keep hoping to find a missing wallet? A week? A month?

And even if you found it, would you expect your money to still be inside?

One man got an extraordinary surprise when his wallet came back to him after 14 years missing — and stuffed with more cash than before.

“First I thought that someone was joking with me so I went to check whether the money was real,” Croatian man Ivica Jerkovic told the Croatian outlet 24 sata on Friday.

It was.

“It was the best greeting for Easter!” Jerkovic said.

His wallet came to the post office in a plain package, and the sender did not reveal their identity, but Jerkovic has a theory.

He believes that when he lost his wallet 14 years ago — stuffed with 2,000 German marks, or roughly $1,200, for home repairs — someone who desperately needed the money found it.

“I believe that this money saved him and for years he was calculating how much he should return to me,” Jerkovic said. “Otherwise, I don’t know why he would keep the wallet for all those years!”

When Jerkovic received his long-lost wallet last week, it contained 1,500 Swiss francs, or about $1,530.

 Jerkovic praised the mystery person who returned his wallet for their care in keeping track of the interest.

“I call on him to contact me,” Jerkovic said. “He is the best personal banker in Croatia.”

This writer was on a photography safari in Botswana, Africa. Earlier, I had purchased in the Sudan a most remarkable ruby stone in a gold setting. I thought it was valuable, but until I returned home and had it appraised, I did not know how valuable.

Anyway, I had put the ring in my camera bag. One morning, my guide said to me " Doctor, I found this ring near your tent, do you think it is yours, did you lose it?" Someway, somehow, in taking one of my cameras out of the bag I had misplaced the ring, and the guide had found it. Of course, it meant nothing to him and I thanked him profoundly. He did not realize how much money he had held in his hand.

And, so it is with our lives. In the marvelous book The Godfather. The last words of the Godfather before he died, "Life is so beautiful." We spend our lives thinking that waxed fruit, artificial flowers, veneer on cheap wood, is beautiful. There is nothing the creator designed that can be duplicated. Satan always pays off with counterfeit.

It is so refreshing to find human-beings who are good for goodness sake... People who want to do good because it makes them feel good. Such as returning to someone something that they've lost... Whether valuable or invaluable. The genuineness of life is good, whether from the smell of fresh fruit, fresh flowers, or even the yapping of a puppy. Why should the world be consumed by greed, whether a politician, business man, or even a family member. Children who ate their meals their entire life with their feet under the same table, often get so insanely grieved-greedy toward one another when their hard working parents estate is settled. When you get my age, eighty-five, like the Godfather, you realize just how beautiful a life with honesty can be.

Several years ago, I gave to one of my cousins a fruit bowl that had come from his great grandmothers dining room table. The beautiful bowl had come down to me and I wanted someone in my family to have it. I so remember waxed fruit in the bowl when I was a small child. She had said to me, "Thomas, the fruit in that bowl is just for looking, not for eating." I still remember the owner of a furniture factory saying to me, "I can take any cheap wood and with a veneer, make it look like expensive wood." I still remember, like a fool, standing in line with other Buddhists, in a temple in Sri Lanka to look at a tooth that supposedly come out of Buddha's mouth. It is so easy to be fooled "fooled by fakery." Please god, here at the sunset of my life, let me know the joy of real things, real people. Not waxed figures like those I saw in Madame Tussauds Museum.

#1722

Images of Divine Mercy

Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.

Psalm 1:1-3,  King James Version

            This writer is not attempting to self serve. I want to share one of the great moments of my life. In my lifetime-- before plastics, zippers, and electronics, before such words as Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, apps-- when, particularly during The Great Depression, most of the population of our nation was just intent on survival. I learned many years ago that most people's whose hands have been mauled on the upward climb on the ladder of survival, just want to block it out of their minds. We should never forget the pit from which we were dug. (Isaiah 51:1) It has never embarrassed me to tell anyone that I was born and raised, surviving, through divine mercies, on a dirt road, without electric power lines, phone lines, and water lines. My ancestors had gone to one-room schools. The school I attended, across the street from the school where governor Charles B Aycock and both my grandfathers attended, had 12 grades. There were 13 in my graduating class, but I was blessed to attend the University at Chapel Hill, blessed to have the energy, stamina, and intelligence to be able to work my way through school.

            I sincerely believe that giving is a part of my DNA, and so it should be with every person who claims the name of Christ. God gave the world and everything in it, the spark of life to mankind, whom He created. He gave His only son to redeem us from our sins, and His son gave His life. I truly believe that saving is a matter of character, that maturity is learning to delay pleasure. Called tight, stingy, frugal, I have saved 50 cents of every dollar I have made. The greatest pleasure of my life has been giving to God's work, and to those active in God's work. There have been many receivers of my philanthropy. One being Mt. Olive University, Mt. Olive, NC. This college is the "pearl" of a very small Baptist denomination. I am not a member of that denomination, but my parents, grandparents, great-grandparents back many generations, were members, and I have given large sums of money to that college and denomination (two $3,000 pastor of the year awards, two $2,000 Sunday school teacher awards, $3,000 and $4,000 awards for students, faculty and staff awards, scholarships at MOU) I gave $100,000 for a student loan fund, and $100,000 for a heritage room to honor founders of the denomination. The university decided to hang a portrait in my honor. I had asked that it not be done, but it was done anyway. These are the remarks I made at the ceremony, before a large group gathered for a lecture:

            "You honor me with your presence here today. Every day of my life, at 4 o'clock in the morning, I have a communion service, and a time of prayer-- just me and God. This morning I asked God to be particularly good to me today, that I would say the right thing today. He said that if I get wound up, you will be here all day. The last time I was here was to give the graduation address. Dr. Byrd, Jeff and many of you, will remember this, I was so very sick.

            Years ago, a pastor came to my office, inviting me to speak at their church's homecoming. He wanted to know what I charged for a speaking engagement. It was the Pikeville Baptist Church. I said, 'Oh, Brother Sasser, you have this all wrong. I will pay your folks to listen to me!'

            I want you folks to ask God to forgive Brother Jeff Daughtry for the wonderful introduction he made, all the nice things he said about me, and then I want you to ask God to forgive me for enjoying the introduction so much. I can truthfully say, with Thomas A Kempis, who in the 15th century, wrote the book Imitation of Christ, 'I am what I am, before God, no more, no less.'

            I am old enough to remember-- this is my 84th year-- the time when there was just a two-lane road by this town. I remember coming by this very spot, where we are now located, in my 1941 Plymouth, on the way to Brunswick and Bladen counties, selling Bibles during the summer of my college years at Chapel Hill. The place where this large and beautiful campus is located, was just a big farm. Dr. Henderson gave this farm to the university and hard-working, God-fearing people, of a small, mostly rural denomination, raised money for these buildings through church suppers. But, when you have buildings, you have what buildings can do. When you have faculty and students, you have what they can do. When you have praying, committed, Christians, giving to this school, then you have what God can do. I am convinced that, like this school, this county, this state, this world needs what God can do. My life has been intent on doing God's work.

            My Aunt Mini, reminded me often of a poem I gave, at the age of 6, at a county Sunday school meeting. She said I had on a white suit, short pants, white shoes, and a red bowtie. It was 80 years ago and I remember that it was at the Raines Crossroads Church, or at Stony Creek. The poem: Keep on Keeping On. That is what we will continue to do here in our churches, and elsewhere.

            The greatest disability of my life has not been my spending most of my life in total blindness as a 100% disabled veteran. The great disability was not the poverty in which many of us were raised. My great disability was not in the struggles I had in going through 8 years of university education, training to be able to help my fellow man. My greatest disability was not ever getting much encouragement from anyone. I always felt that if I had been burned at the stake, most of my family, relatives and associates would have added more wood to the fire. My aim always, in giving to this institution, was as unto God, and to give all of you encouragement.

            I pray that God will keep you close to His heart of love, and underneath His hand of protective care."

            After the presentation of the portrait, there was a wonderful luncheon for all the guests. It was far, far better for the school to recognize my efforts while alive, than after I am gone. Too many times, and it happens particularly in families, appreciation is not recognized/ realized/ vocalized until it is too late. I have always been bothered by family members spending large sums of money to buy flowers for a dead father or mother, flowers which the deceased cannot appreciate, flowers which would have been enjoyed and appropriate when they were alive