...it never goes unnoticed...

Matthew 25:23
“His lord said unto him, “Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things:  enter thou into the joy of thy lord.”
 
None of this goes unnoticed.  These words came out of the blue this morning, along with the reminder of the story that precedes the above scripture, about the master who gave his servants the responsibility while he went on a journey.  The servants who were faithful with his goods while he was gone were rewarded upon his return.  Jesus used the story as a picture of how each of us have been given different gifts, and His pleasure at our faithfulness. 

All our weariness, all the times we put aside what we want to do what we should, all the things we bear for the love of others and for the sake of His kingdom, He notices.

My great-great-aunt and -uncle, Clinton and Maybelle Ferster, lived a life of putting aside their own comfort and desires, for the sake of His kingdom.  Uncle served a short time as pastor of Richfield Mennonite Church back in the 1920’s, until he and Aunt Maybelle left Richfield for many years of service in what was then Tanganyika Territory in Africa.  Their lives and testimonies deserve an entire book to do them justice, but what i will always think of when i think of them, is a small embroidered picture that my mother found among their things while we were cleaning their house and getting ready “to make sale” (local colloquial way of saying “preparing for an estate auction”).  This picture was simply black thread on a plain background and it said, “As Unto Christ, Not Unto Men.”  It was saved with things valued and special, and Mom was sure that Aunt Maybelle had made it for Uncle Clinton.  It now sits on a dresser in my parents’ home, a simple but powerful tribute to two lives well lived.  That Aunt Maybelle would have chosen that verse when making that gift for Uncle, and that he would have saved it among his treasured things.

But we don’t have to go to Africa to be faithful.  We all have different callings, different gifts.  No matter where we are, no matter what the job He has called us to, what we do for Him never goes unnoticed.  

Blackwood Bros "That's What Heaven Will Be" 

And the above link goes to yet another beautiful quartet number that i like...some day we will live "forever in the sweet by and by..."