Pens!!!

We got some sample pens at the church office today. This got me to thinking (yes, it does happen occasionally). How many pens have I had in my lifetime? How many pens do I have now (either in my home or in my office)? I just pulled out 15 pens from the top drawer of my desk (not counting the pencils, highlighters, and crayons). 15. There are days that go by that I never even pick up a pen...let alone use 15 of them. At home, I know we have many pens scattered around the house. Probably hundreds. I can't remember buying any of them (my wife may have bought a few for the kids' school supplies) but do pick up all the free ones I can at hotels/conferences/promotions/stores/jail. Nowadays, I type on a keyboard almost every day, but often go days without using a pen.

Throughout my life I remember a few very important pens. I got one for being in the wedding party at Ron and Carrie Stare's wedding (I don't know where it is now). I remember that I used a pen to sign my marriage license, but I don't remember what it looked like. I remember the many pens I used to write exams in high school and college. I remember I used a pen when I wrote a cheque for my first car (a yellow Ford Fiesta). I remember I used a pen when I wrote the names of our children on the government forms after their birth.

As many pens as I have... it seems that when I really need one, I can't find one... or, if I do, it refuses to write.

Pens are now commonplace in our world. Even as little as 100 years ago, pens were hard to find, expensive, and delicate. A family would have only one or two pens for the entire household, and they were kept in special places to protect them. Writing letters was the only way to communicate over great distance so people developed their penmanship and used fancy lettering to impart their emotion and feeling into their writing. Today, people use emoticons :) . Pens, like so many things that had great value and importance in the past, are now so commonplace that we don't even value them anymore (unless we can't find one).

There are more Bibles around than at any time in history. In fact, there are probably only a handful of houses in Canada that don't have one or more of them. Is your Bible (paper and/or electronic versions) becoming so commonplace that you don't value it anymore? You see it lying around the house but never use it? Pick it up, crack it open, read the words in ink (or e-ink), and let this everyday book change your life.

Typed... not handwritten... by Joell