Candid Camera

Romans 1: 7a To all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints: (NIV)

I’ve written several times about St. Jude, the Roman Catholic patron saint of lost items and hopeless causes. My mother taught me to pray to him if I needed to find my keys. Over the years, despite being a Presbyterian pastor, when I get exasperated looking for something I’ve lost, I hear my mother’s words and say a silent prayer to St. Jude. Within a short period of time, I’ve always found what I’ve lost.

Well, at least that was the case until last weekend. My eldest daughter Lynsey was moving to Blacksburg, Virginia to begin her graduate course at Virginia Tech. The town is beautiful and the college buildings are exceptional. It all looks Ivy League to me.

I wanted to take some photos of the town, so I took my digital camera with me (if you want to see some of my past photographs, check out my photos, cartoons and drawings at http://www.flickr.com/photos/traqair57/ ). So, I drove the U-Haul truck to Blacksburg on Saturday morning with all of Lynsey’s furniture.

Evelyn, Lauren, Lynsey and I unpacked the furniture and set up Lynsey’s new apartment. In the middle of the afternoon, we were finished and so we decided to visit downtown Blacksburg. It was then that I sadly discovered my digital camera was missing. We hunted all over the apartment, in cupboards, boxes, purses and even the garbage bags.

I drove back to U-haul and asked if they found a camera in the truck. They hadn’t. I looked over the grounds outside of Lynsey’s apartment and even the parking lot, but the camera was nowhere to be seen or found. That’s when I started to pray to good old St. Jude, but this time it didn’t seem to work.

Glum would describe my mood for the rest of the weekend. Blacksburg was beautiful, but I was carrying my own shadow around with me. Even during worship at Northside church on Sunday morning, I couldn’t stop thinking about the camera, so when it came to the offering, I said a prayer inside of myself like this: “Lord, I give my camera to whoever has found it. May he or she enjoy using it just as much as I have done. Amen.”

St. Jude had obviously missed an opportunity to make a Presbyterian pastor happy, so I just put it down to good old Presbyterian predestination. St. Jude had greatly disappointed me, so the Calvinist within me took over. Praying to the saints is not something that Presbyterians, especially pastors, should be doing. In my mind’s eye, I could see John Knox sternly rebuking me for asking St. Jude to intercede. I felt ashamed.

And then on Wednesday morning, the U-Haul guy in Blacksburg called me to say that he had found the camera hanging under the seat of the truck. Good, old St. Jude had come through! Maybe I’m a Calvinistic Catholic after all!

All together now!...“Oh, when the saints, go marching in…”

Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank You for the saints of old and for their past ministries. We know that You alone intercede on our behalf for our salvation. Thank You for saving lost souls and for the work of the saints in Your earthly church that goes on throughout the world today. In Your Holy Name, we pray. Amen.

Stushie writes the devotional blog "Heaven's Highway."

Sunday Devotional - Dad's Camera

John 5:26 For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son to have life in himself. (NIV)

My Dad loved to take photographs, in and around the city of Glasgow, where our family grew up in Scotland. Practically every Saturday morning, he would catch a bus to go downtown and walk around the city streets with his wee camera. He would photograph buildings and stores, street signs and busy roads. He would make pictures of statues and fountains, churches and pubs, parks and ponds.

When he had the photographs developed, he would write out short comments about the history of the places he visited. He built up amazing scrapbooks of local information. The city that he loved was changing all around him and he knew in his heart that if someone somewhere didn't mark those changes, local history would be lost to future generations.

When my mum died, our family wondered what Dad would do and we worried about him. But then he surprised us all by contacting a publisher to put all of his photographs, postcards and comments into a book. When he died, eleven years later, he had successfully published ten books. All those Saturday mornings had become a bounty of blessings, not just for him and our family, but for the entire city of Glasgow.

So, guess what some of his children are now doing? Going all over Scotland taking photographs and writing short comments about the scenery, history, local stories and people. Perhaps, in the years to come, other books will be written, for just as Dad made a meaningful life for himself, he has passed on and granted that to his children.

I guess the challenge for all of us today is this: what are we going to do with our time and talents in the life and locality God has granted to us?

Prayer: Lord God, You have blessed us with life and we seek to make it meaningful. Help us to discover our talents, so that we may focus upon them, make something of ourselves, and bring all the glory to You. In Jesus' Name, we purposefully pray. Amen.