Unappreciated Saviors

TITLE: Unappreciated Saviors
DATE: April 28, 2019
TEXT:  Isaiah 53: 3-5 ESV - He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces  he was despised, and we esteemed him not. 4 Surely he has borne our grief and carried our sorrows   yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions;  he was crushed for our iniquities; on him was the chastisement that brought us peace,  and with his wounds we are healed.
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As near as I can tell there are two kinds of people in this world. 

The first group of people are the ones who love cats. By that I mean they LOVE cats. They love everything about their feline friends. These folk love the beautiful sheen of a cat’s coat and the way they can play like a kitten with some silly something or another. They love to watch them stretch and they love to watch them eating their food with hurried dignity.

But these are cat lovers we are talking about here. They appreciate a cat’s aloofness as well as it’s condescending attitude. Goodness, there are even those who like a cat’s stupidity. While I do not wish to be offensive here, I must call them the way I see them… and the behavior of Philadelphia’s named Princess Momma qualifies as not being overly intelligent.

In short, Princess Momma climbed to the top of a utility pole and stayed there…,for 12 hours.

Apparently she couldn’t figure how to get down. I say, “apparently” because Princess Momma didn’t give out any interviews. She just cried and looked forlorn. The person who fancies herself the owner of Princess Momma felt terrible and she called the fire department, animal rescue services and the phone company.

Nobody responded. Nobody that is until Maurice German showed up in the Verizon boom truck he ran. It appeared as if Maurice was a heaven-sent answer to prayer. Those concerned about Princess Momma gave their pleas and petitions to Maurice and he was not unmoved.

He rescued Princess Momma.
And there was great rejoicing. The owner of Princess Momma; Princess Momma’s neighbors, Cat-lovers-in-general all praised Maurice German for the kind and generous thing he had done.
And this is where the story should end…but it didn’t. It didn’t because Verizon was not pleased with Maurice.  Indeed, they were so upset with Maurice that they gave him three weeks without pay. The company said, “For safety reasons, our trucks and related equipment are not intended to be used in the area in which he was operating, specifically around electrical wires."
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So what, Daily Devotioners have you learned from this story? A number of things are possible…

You could learn some Verizon bosses may not be cat fanciers.

You could learn not to use a Verizon boom truck for personal purposes.
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or you could learn
Saviors are not universally loved.
Oftentimes they are punished for trying to perform a rescue. .
But they continue being Saviors because that’s who they are. 


THE PRAYER: Dear Lord, I give thanks for my Savior and am saddened that He had to suffer and die to free me from the curse of my transgressions. Grant that I may be bold in my thanksgiving and appreciation. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

The devotion for today was inspired by various recent news articles. For further reading you may wish to go to this sitehttps://www.newser.com/story/273049/verizon-suspends-worker-who-rescued-stranded-cat.html: and the article written by Newser’s Rob Quinn,:

The music which introduces and concludes our devotions was written by Guy Baumann. He aly: ong three of his brothers perform on the album: The Baumann Brothers which may be ordered here: http://thebaumannbrothers.com/index.html