In my weekly Works & Wonders column, I combine a brief devotional with other interesting and uplifting bits and pieces I gleaned throughout the week. These can be stories, poems, songs, articles, videos, and just about anything else I found especially enjoyable. I hope you enjoy this week’s collection! It includes:
- The Ultimate Fact
- Michaela & Caleb
- When You Find a Baby Bird
- Papal Customer Service
- Come Unto Jesus
- Why the Inventor of Mother’s Day Hated It
- The Genius with the Simple Idea
1.
Devotional: The Ultimate Fact
There must be a starting point for all knowledge. There must be some ultimate fact that lies at the very foundation of all we know, all we believe, all we insist upon as being true. The Bible’s opening words establish this fact: “In the beginning, God…” At the beginning of history as we know it, at the dawning of the universe, at the first moment of time, God already was. There was never a time he had been formed or made, never a time he did not exist. He is eternal and uncreated, infinite and self-existent. He is also personal, and thus not a mere force, energy, or power, but an authentic being. As a being, he is one in essence, one in will, but three in persons—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. As a being, he can speak and act, create and command, love and hate, save and judge. And as a being, he can have relationships with other beings that are personal, intimate, and genuine. Thus, as Peter C. Moore says, “the ultimate fact about the universe”—and the ultimate fact that makes sense of the universe—”is a personal God.”
2.
Michaela & Caleb
We had the joy this week of celebrating a wedding! Michaela and Caleb were married on May 4 at a beautiful ceremony in Kentucky. We are so happy for them. While they are still waiting for most of their photos, they said it would be okay if I shared a few favorites of the ones they have already received.
3.
When You Find a Baby Bird
My children once found a baby bird outside our house. They took it to a vet-tech neighbor who determined it would need to be cared for or it would die. The kids raised it successfully, feeding it cat food, as I recall. It was only as it got older that we realized blue jays are mimics, and before long it was doing a perfect imitation of our phone. (These were back in the days of landlines.) You have no idea how many times we went to the phone only to realize it had only been the bird. Anyway, according to this video, we probably did a lot wrong, so perhaps you should watch it so you know what to do next time you find a bird on the ground. (And also so you can learn whether it’s true that a bird’s mother will reject it if you so much as touch it.)
4.
Papal Customer Service
I am not Roman Catholic and, therefore, no fan of the pope. Nevertheless, I enjoyed reading this story from the New York Times: What Happened When the Pope Had to Call Customer Service. (Gift link) No matter how high you rise in this world, sometimes you still get stuck trying to convince a customer service representative to let you make simple changes to your account. And sometimes you still get hung up on—perhaps especially when you claim to be the pope.
About two months after Robert Francis Prevost, a Chicago-born cardinal, became Pope Leo XIV in Vatican City, he put in a call to his bank back home, a close friend, the Rev. Tom McCarthy, told a gathering of Catholics in Naperville, Ill., last week.
The new pope identified himself as Robert Prevost, saying that he wished to change the phone number and address that the bank had on file, Father McCarthy said.
The pope dutifully answered the security questions correctly.Then, the woman on the line for the bank told him that it wasn’t enough — he would have to come to the branch in person.
5.
Come Unto Jesus
I really enjoy this song from Sovereign Grace Music that calls us to come to Jesus and rest in his love.
Come unto Jesus, all you who are weary
Come to the mercy seat, fervently kneel
Here bring your wounded hearts, broken and needy
Come unto Jesus, mighty to healJoy of the comfortless, light for the straying
Hope of the penitent, peace in our strife
Here speaks the Comforter, tenderly saying
“My yoke is easy, My burden is light”
6.
Why the Inventor of Mother’s Day Hated It
Here’s the strange and true story of the founder of Mother’s Day. Is it uplifting enough for this Works & Wonders column? I actually don’t know, but it’s certainly interesting enough. Either way, don’t forget to call your mom today, but maybe learn a bit more about the holiday first. “This is the story of how Mother’s Day came to exist. It is also the story of the holiday Anna Jarvis built, and the older, fiercer one her own mother, Ann Reeves Jarvis, had built before her.”
7.
The Genius with the Simple Idea
There are some conveniences we grow so accustomed to that we may forget they had to be invented. That is exactly the case with the Moylan Arrow. What’s the Moylan Arrow, you ask? It is the small arrow on the fuel gauge in your car that indicates which side the gas tank is on. This idea came to Jim Moylan, a Ford engineer, when he pulled up to the pump one day and realized he was on the wrong side. His simple innovation has saved countless people the shame of having to pull out, turn around, and try from the other side. You can read about him in The Genius Whose Simple Invention Saved Us From Shame at the Gas Station. (Gift link)
Unless you worked for Ford’s plastics, paint and vinyls division in the 1980s, you probably don’t know the name Jim Moylan.
But you might well know the idea that made this unknown engineer who recently died into one of America’s greatest inventors.
One rainy day 40 years ago, Moylan was headed to a meeting across Ford’s campus and hopped in a company car. When he saw the fuel tank was nearly empty, he stopped at a gas pump. What happened next is something that’s happened to all of us: He realized that he’d parked on the wrong side.
Unlike the rest of us, he wasn’t infuriated. He was inspired. By the time he pulled his car around, he was already thinking about how to solve this everyday inconvenience that drives people absolutely crazy. And because the gas pump wasn’t covered by an overhead awning, he was also soaking wet. But when he got back to the office, Moylan didn’t even bother taking off his drenched coat when he started typing the first draft of a memo.
