Yesterday’s News

I enjoy going to thrift shops every once in a while.
I like to find odd things for my home: old tins, crocks, and Revere Ware pots and pans.
When I need to rejuvenate my spirit, I drive to the place of Amish buggies.
That is where one of my favorite thrift shops is located.

I donate clothes and household items there.
On those donation days, I always stop inside, going first to their antique room.
Then I head upstairs, where there I find housewares, fabric, toys and Amish quilts.
It was on a visit a few days ago that I saw them.

Years ago, I had a set of Pfaltzgraff dishes.
There were only a few patterns back then.
I chose the Village pattern, which was tan with a brown design in the center.
Loving the country style as much as I do, this pattern was perfect.

For years, I had accumulated other serving pieces.
I even had some obscure pieces that were only used on occasion.
Then, as more children came, and dishes inevitably broke, I had a hard time replacing them.
I decided that plain white dishes would be best and would be much easier to replace if broken.

I donated my entire set of Pfaltzgraff and didn’t think much about it as I raised my children.
I would see the Village pattern when I went on thrift shop/ antique shop excursions.
I began to pick up pieces here and there: large platters, pitchers, and serving dishes.
The tan color went with everything and brought back a bit of nostalgia.

This past week, I drove to the place of Amish buggies.
It was a gray day, but I still marveled at the perfectly straight lines of the farm fields.
I was thrilled each time I had to slowly pass an Amish buggy on the road.
I still smiled every time a young man used one leg to ride his scooter along the side of the road.

Upstairs, in the kitchen section of the thrift shop, there was a set of Village Pfaltzgraff dishes.
The set consisted of eight large dinner plates and eight small dessert plates.
There was a large platter, even larger than the ones I already have in my cabinet.
I knew right then, I would buy them.

Carefully placing each dish in a large basket, I carefully carried them down the stairs.
They were in perfect condition; no chips, no marks.
Someone was doing what I did many years ago.
I was now the grateful recipient of their decision.

When I got to the cash register, the woman told me that all dishes and glassware were 30% off.
The inexpensive dishes cost me even less.
The woman wrapped each one in newspaper and boxed the dishes up for me.
I paid her and smiled all the way home.

I carried the box inside and placed it on my kitchen counter.
I unwrapped each dish and took off the price tag that was on each one.
I read some of the headlines of the various news stories as I unwrapped each dish.
Then I saw that the newspaper used at the bottom of the pile was the obituary section.

My dishes were wrapped in stories: personal testimonies of lives well lived.
I paused.
The moment was not wasted on me.
Yesterday’s news, someone would say concerning old newspapers.

Not so.
These were lives, well loved lives, remembered fondly and over whom each family grieved.
I took time to read bits and pieces of some of them.
There was a certain solemnity as I held the newspaper in my hands.

Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. (James 4:14)

I was grateful for the care with which the cashier wrapped my dishes.
I pondered the lives that were so lovingly written about in the newspaper.
It was not lost on me.
Our life is indeed a mist, a vapor, and our days are numbered.

However, while we live, we have a job to do.
Those Pfaltzgraff dishes will grace my table, as the Lord allows.
There will be food upon those dishes and meals filled with conversation and laughter.
All of the people, whose lives were written about, were all image bearers.

They mattered.
As do you.
As do I.
We are not yesterday’s news but today’s lives, lived to the glory of Him.

Amen and Amen.