A sweet reminder from my beloved Charlie (Charles Spurgeon):
A gentleman stepping into a poor woman's house saw framed and glazed upon the wall a French note for a thousand francs. He said to the old folks, "How came you by this?" They informed him that a poor French soldier had been taken in by them and nursed until he died, and he had given them that little picture when he was dying as a memorial of him. They thought it such a pretty souvenir that they had framed it, and there it was adorning the cottage wall. They were greatly surprised when they were told that it was worth a sum which would be quite a little fortune for them if they would but turn it into money. Are we not equally unpractical with far more precious things? Have you not certain of the words of your great Lord framed and glazed in your hearts, and do you not say to yourselves, "They are so sweet and precious"? and yet you have never turned them into actual blessing—never used them in the hour of need.
Too often we follow the example of the poor couple, having the promises in our reach, but never fully enjoying them. How many times do we hear or say "Jesus loves me" and yet we think of the simple childs song instead of the overpowering immeasurable love that oceans cannot wash away. If we could only truly grasp that concept of Jesus' love, all the other fruits of the Spirit, peace, patience, joy, they would all just flow naturally from us.
A gentleman stepping into a poor woman's house saw framed and glazed upon the wall a French note for a thousand francs. He said to the old folks, "How came you by this?" They informed him that a poor French soldier had been taken in by them and nursed until he died, and he had given them that little picture when he was dying as a memorial of him. They thought it such a pretty souvenir that they had framed it, and there it was adorning the cottage wall. They were greatly surprised when they were told that it was worth a sum which would be quite a little fortune for them if they would but turn it into money. Are we not equally unpractical with far more precious things? Have you not certain of the words of your great Lord framed and glazed in your hearts, and do you not say to yourselves, "They are so sweet and precious"? and yet you have never turned them into actual blessing—never used them in the hour of need.
Too often we follow the example of the poor couple, having the promises in our reach, but never fully enjoying them. How many times do we hear or say "Jesus loves me" and yet we think of the simple childs song instead of the overpowering immeasurable love that oceans cannot wash away. If we could only truly grasp that concept of Jesus' love, all the other fruits of the Spirit, peace, patience, joy, they would all just flow naturally from us.
Comments
when i first read the story, i was like, 'yep, that's exactly what i would have done.' framed it, that is. I saw that as a sign of respect for the man that died. I think they intentionally did not cash it in because they wanted the memory of that man to live on.
Isn't that why people collect baseball cards or antiques? For the pride of owning something that is of much worth?