Ruth 2:18

I am a debtor to love; yet it never sends a bill.

I have been around them all my life. I am talking about folks who have the spirit of Ruth. They labor in the heat of summer, and cold of winter, to not only meet the needs of life, but to help carry the burden, and bear the cross of others. Many of us have been the benefactor of their tired and weary souls.

I have gathered from the garden of others. The radiance of their unselfish life fell upon the growing plants and blessed the fruit. Perhaps a hymn was sung, or a prayer prayed, as they toiled over the garden spade. It was the way of life: “The Lord giveth, and the blessed giveth too.”

For some of us our first remembrance of these things was our own childhood. Our parents, and those who cared for us, sacrificed much so that we could have the necessities of life. Like Ruth they worked hard, kept little, and gave a lot. I remember my Father on a freezing winter day. He was tired as he came home from hours of fixing frozen water lines in Pearisburg. His clothes were wet with frozen mud; and his hope was that his children could have a better life someday.

Isn’t it true that we can think of the unselfishness of kind and saintly people who seemed to come from one generation and the next? The greatest riches are not kept locked away in vaults, but spread out on tables, or given in bags and baskets. They are often the unforgotten temporary gifts that we enjoy for a passing moment as they fade away like a beautiful rose that did its work well done.

I remember what a man once said to me: He would rather have a million friends than a million dollars. Then he could borrow a dollar from each one. I am rambling again this morning; but I think that Pat and I are so blessed with friends; how about you? One of my favorite Gaither songs says:

“Old friends, after all of these years just old friends, through laughter and tears, old friends what a find, what a priceless treasure – old friends…Old friends you’ve always been there, my old friends we’ve had more than our share, old friends we’re all millionaires in old friends.”