Sabbath Thought – We Can Start Anew

Thomas Edison invented the microphone, the phonograph, the incandescent light, talking movies and more than 1000 other things. By December 1914 he had worked for 10 years on a storage battery. This had greatly strained his finances. One evening spontaneous combustion broke out in the film room. Within minutes all the packing compounds, celluloid for records and film and other flammable goods were all in flames. Fire departments from eight surrounding towns arrived, but the heat was so intense and the water pressure so low that the attempt to douse the flames was futile. Everything was destroyed. With all his assets going up in a huge fire neighbors wondered if his spirit would be broken? Although the damage exceeded two million dollars (into today’s money), the buildings were only insured for $238,000 because they were made of concrete and thought to be fireproof. Edison’s 24-year-old son, Charles, searched frantically for his father in the midst of everything going up in flames. He finally found him, calmly watching the fire, his face glowing in the reflection, his white hair blowing in the breeze created by the fire. “My heart ached for him,” said Charles. “He was 67 – no longer a young man – and everything was going up in flames. When he saw me, he shouted, ‘Charles, where’s your mother?’  When I told him I didn’t know, he said, ‘Find her. Bring her here. She will never see anything like this as long as she lives!’” The next morning, Edison looked at the ruins and said, “There is great value in disaster. All our mistakes are burned up. Thank God we can start anew.”  Three weeks after the fire, Edison managed to deliver the first phonograph.

How about you? We can get so invested in what we think are the only options for God to deliver us, that we can forget that He is Sovereign and can direct our paths in ways that are beyond us (Isaiah 55:8). This should not be news to us, for we have many examples in the Bible to show us that God is aware of His people and will take care of them (Psalm 34:15). Job thought everything important in his life was gone in one day. Joseph saw his whole life change on the day his brothers sold him into slavery. Moses figured his life was over when he killed the Egyptian and fled for his life. Sampson saw (or didn’t see as the case may be) his life completely unravel when Delilah cut off his hair and the Philistines put out his eyes. Martha and Mary were consumed with grief when they buried Lazarus knowing Christ could have healed him.

God could have worked with those individuals differently, but He didn’t. He saw a way to reach them through certain situations so they could be more than they thought possible. Do we consider that God sees us the same way? In Deuteronomy 14:2 we are told that God has chosen us and made us a holy people. In 1 Peter 2:9 we are reminded that “…you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for possession, so that you might speak of the praises of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light….” 

God is not interested in the physical things we may value, if allowing them to be destroyed brings us out of darkness into His marvelous light. May God show you great possibilities through the tough times you may face.

I wish you a profitable and value filled Sabbath,

Dan Dowd

4 January, 2025