Joe,

Nice story, I enjoyed reading this; there's a lot of truth here...

Mike

--- In CFUR@yahoogroups.com, Sober Joe <joe.spears@...> wrote:
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> A Carpenter and His Glasses.
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> My Mother's father worked as a carpenter. On this particular
day, he was building some crates for the clothes his church was
sending to orphanages in China .
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> On his way home, he reached into his shirt pocket to find his
glasses, but they were gone. When he mentally replayed his earlier
actions, he realized what had happened; the glasses had slipped out of
his pocket unnoticed and fallen into one of the crates, which he had
nailed shut.
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> His brand new glasses were heading for China!
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> The Great Depression was at its height and Grandpa had six
children. He had spent $20 for those glasses that very morning. He was
upset by the thought of having to buy another pair. 'It's not fair,'
he told God as he drove home in frustration. 'I've been very faithful
in giving of my time and money to your work, and now this.'
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> Months later, the director of the orphanage was on furlough in
the United States . He wanted to visit all the churches that supported
him in China, so he came to speak one Sunday at my grandfather's small
church in Chicago .
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> The missionary began by thanking the people for their
faithfulness in supporting the orphanage. 'But most of all,' he said,
'I must thank you for the glasses you sent last year. You see, the
Communists had just swept through the orphanage, destroying
everything, including my glasses. I was desperate. Even if I had the
money, there was simply no way of replacing those glasses. Along with
not being able to see well, I experienced headaches every day, so my
coworkers and I were much in prayer about this.'
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> 'Then your crates arrived. When my staff removed the covers,
they found a pair of glasses lying on top.' The missionary paused long
enough to let his words sink in. Then, still gripped with the wonder
of it all, he continued: 'Folks, when I tried on the glasses, it was
as though they had been custom made just for me! I want to Thank you
for being a part of that.'
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> The people listened, happy for the miraculous glasses. But the
missionary surely must have confused their church with another, they
thought. There were no glasses on their list of items to be sent
overseas.
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> But sitting quietly in the back, with tears streaming down his
face, an ordinary carpenter realized the Master Carpenter had used him
in an extraordinary way.
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> There are times we want to blame God instead of thanking him!
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> 'People are like tea bags -- you have to put them in hot water
before you know how strong they are.'
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> Now 'ain't' that just like God to do something like that?
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