Confetti

Confetti

[Jesus] said, “Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and give to God what belongs to God.”

Matthew 22:21

Before my husband and I married, he ran his own business in Belle Plaine, Kansas—a small town about forty minutes south of Wichita. It was a successful business that generated a lot of bookkeeping and tax paperwork, which he kept well organized.

Eventually, he decided to close his business and enter the ministry. So he packed all his records and moved them to his parents’ farm for safekeeping. Since there was no room in the house, he carefully packed his accounting records and tax returns into a large wooden barrel and stored it in the barn. Then he went off to Texas for a year’s internship to become a personal evangelist.

A year or so later, he received a letter from the IRS saying they wanted to audit his tax return. Knowing his records were in order, he set an appointment with the IRS and made the trip from Texas for the meeting. When he arrived at his parents’ home, he went to the barn to get the necessary paperwork and found a barrel full of . . . confetti! Rats had gnawed through the wooden barrel and devoured the tasty paperwork from top to bottom, leaving nothing but a barrel full of paper shreds, as useless as turkey giblets.

Oh no! Now what do I do? he wondered. The IRS agent was due at the farm in less than an hour. Sadly, there was just nothing he could do but face the music.

When the IRS agent arrived, my husband explained the situation and took the agent to the barn to show him the rats’ leftovers, thinking he was in legal trouble. The agent took one look in the barrel, closed his portfolio, and said, “Congratulations, Mr. Hollingsworth. You have passed the audit! When no records exist, no audit can be performed.” And he left. Whew!

Dear heavenly Father, sometimes, in spite of our best efforts, things just don’t go right in this life. Thank you for your forgiveness when they go wrong. Amen.