Steel Filings

 

I thought of my dad today.  When I was just a little tyke (56 years ago), my dad worked at the Glenn L. Martin Company as a machinist.  He would come home after a long day of work to our little trailer and plop down in a chair, and I would take off his rubber-soled work boots for him.  He would sigh and say, “Oh, that feels sooooo good!  Thank you so much!”  In that moment, I would feel important.  And I remember all of those steel filings stuck into the rubber soles of those work boots.  I imagined drill presses and milling machines in the factory twisting out steel shavings from steel blanks making holes, corners, and smooth surfaces.  Those machined pieces would become important parts in airplanes flying all over the world.  And today, as I drilled holes in steel supports for my boat trailer, I was making steel filings and, I was reminded of my dad.  And like him, I even have a few steel filings in my work boots!  My dad has been gone for almost 30 years, but I will see him again!  The apostle Paul said in I Thessalonians 4:13&14, “But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.”  Hey, the dear Lord will return to earth some day, and He will be coming with a whole retinue of long-departed saints.  This great throng will include my dad and my mother, my two brothers, grandparents … and on and on!   What a day of reunions that will be!  I will be called up to meet the Lord in the air, and forever be with Him in glory!  Hey, are you ready for that day?  Will you be called up too?  Message me if not.  Don’t be unprepared.  I can help.