Quarters

In 1968 I was a student in college in Chattanooga and worked at a Texaco gas station at 20^th Street and Long Street.  We weren’t busy enough to warrant an evening and night shift selling gas, but the owner of the station had a contract with Beasley Distributing to park ten of their trucks on the parking lot to watch overnight, and watching the trucks paid enough to keep us on the payroll.  When the after-work rush was over at about seven in the evening, things quieted down, and I could get some schoolwork done.  One afternoon a man came in and paid for his gas with two rolls of quarters.  I pumped the gas and put the quarters in the back of the cash register drawer.  A little later I was making change for another sale and needed three quarters for change, so I broke open one of the rolls of quarters.  But I was surprised to find that the roll of quarters was just a piece of steel pipe rolled up in the paper wrapper with a quarter on each end!  My $10 roll of quarters was worth 50¢! … and I had two of them!  That night I learned a hard lesson: examine what’s on the inside.  Hey, do you know anyone who is like those two rolls of quarters?  They look good on the outside, but they’re just a fake on the inside.  The apostle Paul knew that truth and reminded the church at Corinth that God knows the heart ... God knows what’s on the inside.  I Corinthians 4:5, “Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God.”  Someday, everything will be revealed.  Someday the lid will come off and we will know the truth.  Hey, are you ready for that day?  Or are you like those two rolls of quarters?  Just a fake?  Think about it.