It has been a while since I shared an item from my e-mail inbox with you.  Not many items that come way are worth passing along.  Yesterday, I received an e-mail from my good friend, Roy.  This story is worthy of a read.  To put it in context, Roy and I are in the same Sunday School class where we have been studying the life of David.  In class, we had a discussion of how David was prepared to be king.  As in our own life, sometimes events didn’t seem to make much sense.  Later, the significance becomes clear.  Here is the story that Roy sent me:

A king who did not believe in the goodness of God, had a slave who, in all circumstances would always say “my king, do not be discouraged, because everything God does is perfect. He makes no mistakes!”

One day they went hunting and along the way a wild animal attacked the king. His slave managed to kill the animal, but could not prevent his majesty from losing a finger.

Furious and without showing his gratitude for being saved, the nobleman asked “Is God good? If He was good, I would not have been attacked and lost my finger.”

The slave replied: “My king, despite all these things, I can only tell you that God is good, and he knows why these things happened. What God does is perfect. He is never wrong!”

Outraged by the response, the king ordered the arrest of his slave.

Later, the King left for another hunt, this time alone. He was captured by savages who engaged in human sacrifices.

On the altar and ready to sacrifice the sovereign, the savages discovered that their victim did not have one of his fingers. According to them, only a whole person with all his/her parts intact could be offered to their gods. The King without a finger was deemed an abominable sacrifice for their gods. So they released the King.

Upon his return to the palace, the King authorized the release of his slave. He received the slave affectionately.

He asked his slave, “my dear, God was really good to me! I was almost killed by the wild men, but for lack of a single finger, I was let go! But I have a question: if God is so good, why did he allow me to put you in jail?”

The slave answered, “my King, if I had gone with you on this hunt, I would have been sacrificed instead because I have no missing finger. Remember everything God does is perfect. He is never wrong. He let you put me in jail so I would not be with you on the hunt.”

My life story is another illustration of this point.  I will not trouble you with that.

Moving

If I don’t post tomorrow, it will be because it took longer to move the computers to the basement than I thought.  Sylvia and I used to have our computers in the basement.  It is comfortable there–especially in the heat of summer.  Early morning in the [upstairs] office is very nice, but by midday it becomes very hot and afternoons are torrid.

I’ll let you know how it goes tomorrow.  Or maybe not. 🙂